Can you see the difference?

 Sometimes Michelle accuses me of being way to picky. Sometimes the little things bug me. I know it can sometimes be a bottleneck for progress. On the other hand it makes the end result better when my demand for things to be "just so" dictates the rate of play. I know my patients like the demand of high standards.

 As such, the alignment of the engine tranny combo was...close. But if I had me way I would jiggle the engine a little more. Problem was the hydraulic pump was in the way. So last week I called John, my mechanic, over to give me an opinion. The decision in the end was to loose the hydraulic pump, go to an electric fan for the rad. This way I can shimmy the engine a bit more, it gets rid of some extra weight, as well as a whack of hoses, a hydraulic reservoir, etc etc. I also elected to remove the air conditioning compressor that is on the upper right on the picture above. Although I will likely have AC in the unit, it will likely be a roof unit so the compressor is redundant.

 So once Ron and I removed the chaff, we needed to then relate the position of the engine mounts to the cradle. EGB in Cochrane is going to make me a new cradle, so all I need to do is show them where everything needs to be!

 Just a relationship weld. This is NOT meant to bear any weight....so don't worry all you engineers.

 The forward engine mounts.

 And Ron got the pleasure to attach the connector arms from the leaf springs to the rebuilt shock absorbers that Randy installed.

After a good day outside....it was time to make dinner. Jeff was on onion duty....I applaud his problem solving skills of onion chopping!!

Whoops! Missed a step.

 Although there are time that I feel I am boring anyone reading this thing to death with my incessant reporting of the smallest occurrence, there are time that I forget that you are not actually here. As a result sometimes I skip some things that happen. Sometimes by choice and sometimes by mistake.

In my last post I made an off the cuff reference to "chaining the diff to the frame", which I did do but I never did explain that to anyone. Someone...not sure who it was really, they didn't leave a name...asked "what the ...??". So it became apparent...I missed reporting a step... Mia copa

So when it came time to finalize the engine position I needed to have the weight of the engine on the frame. Because it affects the relative position of the diff to the frame and therefor the tranny.Here it is all strapped up.

So I simple hung the engine in a sling really...easy-peasy. But you can't move the engine block with any success let alone precision with it supported in a sling. So I had to figure a way to hold the diff in a "loaded" position to the frame.

So, as I referred to in my previous post, I chained it....too simple really. So when I released the engine from the sling back onto the support dollies. The diff was restricted to remain (almost exactly) in the same position as where it will be when the engine is in final mount.

Saturday  was a father son day, we made trip to the 'Sled Parlor'... basically a wrecker yard for snowmobiles and ATV's. This was the first step for the snowenator. Jeff's dream project of a winter go cart. A real cool place. Picture a huge farm Quonset, with a trap like roof that lets in sunlight, full of old ATVs and sleds, and it's pick your part type of place.....pretty cool!

We have a winner!!

 On my last post I showed you a picture of some odd looking wood pieces sitting on my kitchen counter....right next to a steaming hot cup of delicious joe........wait I must go brew a new pot....

OK where was I?....Right!...wood things... I asked people to try to guess what they were. I had a few respondents. One of whom is likely one of my most faithful ( and perhaps biased) blog follower, my Dad. He said quite modestly " I have no idea, unless they are jigs!" I responded "Close, think of them as aides" but as I thought about it more (and then looked up the actual definition of a 'jig')

 jig |jig|
noun
1 a lively dance with leaping movements.
• a piece of music for such a dance, typically in compound time.
2 a device that holds a piece of work and guides the tools operating on it.
3 Fishing a type of artificial bait that is jerked up and down through the water.

 Yes sir, then you are correct Dad! You win a trip in Fillmore.....please stand by for proposed travel dates..actually you may want to sit, this still may take a while. I guess that means, according to the definition....That I'm the tool....hey WAIT A MINUTE!!

 The pieces are in fact jigs that attached on to the diff and the tranny to help me guide them into their final position. They each equal half of the length of the drive shaft so when put together they align the anterior-posterior relationship. Lining them up so the dowel looks continuous gives us the lateral alignment

And the side view gives us the inferior-superior relation. You will notice in this shot the tranny is about a 1/2" higher than the diff. This is because, although I did chain the diff to the frame in the "loaded" position, there was a 1/2" of lift of the frame when I took the weight of the engine off the frame. The difference here will allow the frame to settle into the proper position when all is said and done.

Ahh the right tool for the right job...

 There is nothing better than having the right tool for the right job....well that's not 100% true the only thing better than that is buying a new tool that is the right tool for the right job. I popped into Peavy mart and behold...look at what was on sale!

  I have had 'moisture issues' in my  lines.
Easy there fellas...I'm getting older but I'm not there yet! The problem is the compressed air line that is plumbed into the garage . The workshop,being under the garage, has cement walls,cement ceiling, cement floor....truth be known I affectionately refer to the shop as 'the bunker'. The problem is there is very few ways to get anything....like compressed air out of the shop. There is a fresh air intake, so when I wanted air in the garage above, I simply ran a line through the fresh air intake out side then through the garage wall and presto!-Done!
Except, warm air runs through cold line= condensation. And that is NOT good for the air tools.

 So I terminated the line outside and found an access hole from when they put in the security system through the wall between the furnace room and the shop. (Why I didn't see that the first time I'll never know but now we have an easy access from shop to the furnace room, then the furnace room to the garage.The access to the garage is from the secondary panel we put in the garage for the 220V service. So a new line from inside to inside. A little soldering...

 And boom! I'm back in business

 Now, what the heck are these?? can you guess?

Aloha

Well we are back from Hawaii and we had a great time. We went with some good friends from Winnipeg, so the kids always had each other for company....and so did the adults really!
 I was excited to get home and get my hands dirty again. First order of business was to pick up my new drive shaft......and no matter what you think size matters.....always has...always will. But unlike the fear of every adolescent male, I was happy with this one. Small is good.

 I borrowed my friend Brads trailer and made my way into the city. It was a mixed bag today....some super manly bus stuff, including a brain storm session with the guys at EGB who are going to help me with the motor mounts....and picking up dancing tights and earrings for Anna.....a little less manly but no less important.

 For those who have seen this rad before....you are right it doesn't look very different...but when I took it in to get cleaned up. They did a test and it was a bigger sieve than Curtis Joesph when he played for the Flames. So it was re cored.

No fuss...no bus

Just to drop you all a line and let you know that all is well, but we are not in Kansas anymore ToTo....
Yes we are on holidays in Hawaii for a little hang time. Unfortunately we leave tomorrow, but I'm sure that when we get home all the snow will be gone and we'll be well into spring.......(Ha!!)

Beautiful spring Day!

So now that the engine is in 'dry dock' we decided that there is really nothing more that can be done until I have a chat with my machine shop about the drive shaft. That is now the deal breaker. If they can make me a drive shaft as short as I need then we are golden....if not then I have some crazy ass stuff to do...which may include pushing the engine back even further(which means I have to violate the rear door)....or changing the transmission to a shorter one, and I don't even know if that is an option yet.
Stay tuned.

In the mean time there are plenty of other things to be done. For those who don't know, the bus has two fuel tanks, one of mine was in pretty rough shape so I had to pull it and have it reconditioned. So today we put it back into place! You know spring is close in Canada when you can handle the nuts and bolts without gloves!.....and when you hold them in your mouth they don't instantly freeze to your lips!....don't ask.

The other job Ron and I tackled was starting to plan and build boxes(yet to be insulated) for the water tanks.

The inside of the bus is starting to get crowded, couch, sink,cook top,furnace,heaters, tanks, etc, etc.

The garage on the other hand hasn't looked this bare in,....a year?

Makin' headway!

So, the forecast was for rain and snow, but the bus gods gave us clear skies and sunshine, and a mere -8C. So after I got the kids on the bus I enlisted my father-in-law Ron's help and we moved the engine into the bus for the 'dry fit.

I was really glad that I had another set of hands and eyes to help out with this. Things moved along pretty quick and with relative ease

There were a few points in the snow pack that we just couldn't get the footing we needed to get the engine rolling, so a few times we had to hook up the come-a-long to make some headway.

Soon enough we were backing the engine into place.

The good news is that she fits, I pushed it back as far as I absolutely could in order to maximize the length of the drive shaft.

A moment of warm fuzzies and warm sunshine as I lay under the bus looking at the positioning of the engine/tranny. I chatted via email with my favorite welding shop. They are going to help me out and manufacture some new motor mounts when I have it in it's final resting place.

The bad news... although not catastrophic....we still have some magic to pull out of my.....ehhh never mind. The issue is the length of drive shaft...I have about 6" between yolks

I had to put this one in....last weekend I told you about going on a guys ski trip to Fernie. Well I am here to inform you that everyone came home safely. It's hard to get into trouble when you can't make 10pm....way to go boys...party on!

What a weekend!

So I don't have much to report on the bus front. Frankly I only managed a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. I took off with the boys and went skiing at Fernie for Friday and Saturday. Then I travelled up to Golden B.C. to join the family for a night. This morning I got up early to bring Anna back to a dance commitment while the rest of the family skied another day. That was just fine with me...my legs were DONE after two days of hard powder skiing.

When I got back to Bragg, I poked around for a bit around the house. Then decided I should get outside and do something productive.

Being that I had been gone for a few days I decided that I needed to clear the driveway. Unfortunately it has been so cold, I needed to pull the blower into the garage and put a heater on it.

Soooooo, I took the opportunity to make a wee bit of progress. Small steps but every little bit helps along.

I know that I will need to fabricate a new engine mount/cradle. The old frame from the donor vehicle was 1/4" rectangular steel...perfect!!

I cut off a piece a little wider than what I will need, but it will allow me to jiggle the engine around to it's final resting place....hmm that doesn't sound all that good.

Anyway, just a simple spot weld for now. My plan is once I get the final measurements etc I will remove it, cut it to size, weld, sandblast and paint!....Huh!, nothing to it!!

-39C...

Enough said....

Wiggle room

 Being that it has been minus 700000C for the last few days.....OK maybe I'm being a wee bit dramatic......-675000C tops but that is the god honest truth...or at least it felt like it. You know when it's so cold that when you drive your car on the highway and you have to down shift, you push in the clutch and you are scared that it's so stiff the pedal might not come back up off the floor! And when they give the weather report on the radio, they either play the sound track from 'Ripley's Believe it or not!.....or the theme from Halloween 3 for effect?....THAT is how cold it was!
Sooooo, I worked inside for whatever time I could this weekend....which unfortunately wasn't much. 

 I wiggled the engine within the cradle as far back towards the door as I could. Even at this I will have to do some mods to the cradle. You can see the rear engine mount is sitting on the wood support over the frame of the dolly as opposed to the cross support on the cradle. I still can squeeze out a few more inches I think. I will have to "redesign" the rear removable bumper/splash guard but I may have no choice.

I then removed the drive shaft that came on the harvested power pack. I do have a second drive shaft at my disposal, but either way I go I will likely have to take this to a machine shop and have them modify or create a new one. A new shorter one....

With the drive shaft off it allows me a bit better view of what I have and what I need.