Nesting?

"Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in expectant women." As taken from a very reliable Internet source...but what about expectant men?

I guess it's not really nesting because my behavior is perfectly rational!....Just don't ask my wife.
 You may remember a post from a while back(October 8th I believe), I decided that I was going to take the opportunity that presented itself to upgrade the engine tranny combo that I am putting in Fillmore. I was able to track down a 1992 Monaco motor home with a C8.3 and Allison 4 speed tranny.
After much contemplation, measuring and re-measuring, nail biting, and a heavy dose of waffling, the day has finally arrived. Tomorrow the power-train shows up! At 4:30 to be precise. It's almost like a scheduled 'C'-section if we are going to follow the expectant father theme here.
I decided on the engine and transmission, then called back and said I was interested in the rear axle, then called back and said "of course I want the cooling system, only to be followed by a other call to make sure he sends all of the rear axle bracketing etc etc.
Finally the guys said "ENOUGH"....and he cut the whole ass end off the motor home and said "here take the whole damn thing!" Sooooooooo tomorrow I am having the whole back end of the motor home (which was simply cut off the remainder of the frame) delivered and hopefully set into the garage by a local company with a picker truck!
So it is perfectly logical for me to clear and clean my side of the garage for the new arrival!
Stay tuned....

'Cause it's ROMANTIC...yeeeeish!

 Ok today was a good day. Randy came out and we worked away on a few jobs. I have come to the conclusion that I am way better when there is some accountability for time, and I am spoiled at work. Huh?...allow we to explain. Like most, I assume, when I get puttering away I take my time, enjoy what I am doing and am really quite self indulgent with respect to time. I look at a job, plan it out in my head, start, stop, re-plan, theorize different methods of doing the same job. Remeasure, re plan, etc etc. You can see it eats up allot of time at the expense of productivity. But being that this is 'my project'. I allow myself the luxury. When I have someone with me, I realize they may not be as thrilled with the amount of introspective naval gazing, so I try to be more efficient with the work time. And lone and behold....we get allot of s#@t done!!
Along the same vein, I like order. I like neat and tidy. I also find that I spend allot of my time cleaning up around me as I work. At my work I have very neat&tidy, but it's not me it's my assistants. They keep me organized, on track, on schedule and efficient. I think I need them to come out and work on the bus......chances?....hmmm don't hold yer breath me boy!
OK enough about me, lets get to Fillmore.
I have found a place 'Apple Hydraulics' that will refurbish the 1940's style shock absorbers. I had to laugh I like the guy at this company already, I contacted him by email and asked what the best way to ship the shock absorbers to him was. Did I need a special crate or how about keeping track of them. He replied..' this isn't brain surgery, put 'em in a box with your name on it and mail it to us. We'll fix 'em and ship them back' Fair enough! So I wrestled with the rear shocks and finally got them. First order of business was to get the fronts off. Batta-bing, batta-boom. Done....Next?

 Next was the 'moon roof'. I know this is going to make some flxible purists shudder, but if I run into you somewhere I have broad shoulders, let 'er rip. Similar to putting in a door or window in a house, we did the same for the 'moon roof'. "why is it a moon roof?" my wife asked.....'Cause it's ROMANTIC...yeeeeish!

 Cut the main center support.

 Fabricate a header, footer, and side supports

 Cut and paste!

Wha?

Give me the heat!

As the temp dropped I figured I had better get my work space inside the bus livable too. So it's time to start the insulation process. I've decided that being that it is a good thing to layer your warm clothing it must be a good idea for the insulation layers too! I've decided to start with a double foil backed thin reflective insulation. The R factor is not that great but I wanted to get a protective layer between the outer skin and the main event in the insulation. Although you can see a bundle of PINK, that's not the main insulation. That is mainly to plug holes and block off the cold areas while I work.

Basically the wrap is nothing more than foil backed bubble wrap!

But she goes in slick. Believe it or not, this is all temporary. I will be using the material in the final application, but I want to place an adhesive on the backing before putting it in place for good. Problem is it was -16C this day and the PL 2000 wouldn't set against the outside cold skin in those temps

Closing in

Damn, sometimes I love this site and sometimes it drives me crazy. For that last 15 min I have been trying to begin my "narrative" above the first picture. Seems simple...I've done it before... but for some F#@#** reason it refuses to let me do it tonight. I know I know, I can actually hear my own voice in my head saying the same thing I say to Michelle when she starts cursing at the "stupid computer", (I'm paraphrasing the 'stupid' part) "Now sweetheart, the computer is just fine it's usually the operator !"

This usually is where she bestows a look on me that will freeze 40 proof alcohol. But yet I digress.

After a few weeks of crazy busy, I had a chance to spend some time on the bus last Friday afternoon and Saturday. As you can see I finished the east wall...got to keep Fillmore comfy!

I then went to work on the back wall. 1 1/2" angle iron gave me my vertical supports.

 

My welding is getting better, still not the prettiest, but I'm not going for the Olympics of welding, I just want it to work and be functional. (I think that is what every novice welder says in a defensive tone) 

In the end the rear wall is up, being that the mercury dipped in the high minus 20's I decided it was time for a heat source. The propane heater is still on hand but I thought it was time to get an electric source heater with a fan to help warm it up and circulate the air a bit. With the new windows in she's a little more air tight, Michelle would kill me if I ran the propane heater and died from CO poisoning!

Now where were we?

 

The time has flown by, and yet it feels like forever since I have worked on the bus. For those of you who have been following, Guatemala was another great experience, we worked harder than last time and saw so many people who needed our help....and yet we left so much undone. I have to keep reminding myself that we can't fix everything, what we do seems like a drop in the bucket...but every  drop helps.

Hmmm, nice segway into there is so much to do for Fillmore too!

 I was able to get a little bit done here and there, I came back from Guate and immediately went into show chairman mode for the concerts we put on the following weekend. By the Sunday of the show weekend I was done, exhausted....but I managed to drag my arse out off bed and do a little work on the shelter. It was now mid November and lucky as we were I knew winter was coming, and soon!

 Ha! A little sooner than I thought. I built a end wall for the shelter, partly for roof load support and partly because I want to enclose the ends. Soon enough the snow fell, about 8-10 inches in the first go around.

 Although there are a billion jobs to do, I decided to pick one and try and stay focused on it to completion. Not so surprising I find myself looking at a bunch of jobs that I have started and not completed because I get side tracked by something else, another small job that will "just take a second"

The job at hand today, amid the school bake sale, the dance lessons, play dates, meals dishes and laundry (Michelle is in Winnipeg) was to build the rear wall separating living area from engine room. Yesterday before the Daddy-Daughter date of dinner and the hockey game (yay Flames won 7-2) I was able to do a little welding, getting the vertical supports ready for the rear wall.

Introducing........FILLMORE!

 

Yes ladies and gents, we have finally discovered who has been sitting in the driveway making interesting sounds and smells! We decided that we would discover the name for our bus as a family. The rule was if someone came up with a name we would all try it on and see. If it didn't resonate with everyone then that wasn't it. We went through a lot of names. SinBin2,Rosie,Bertha,Oso, Oso Grande, the onion, the list goes on and on. But when the kids in the neighborhood  started to refer to the bus as "The Hippie Bus", we all just kind of laughed and said "Fillmore"! Jeff went to work to make a name plate for his shelter.

 

Like some animals you can't really tell the sex of the individual until later in life....well we always thought Fillmore was a girl....but really he's just a peace,love and understanding kind of guy!

  

As you can tell, the last bit of work was Thursday night when Randy and I took the rear axle out. Friday morning (during a snowstorm) I trailered the 5.9L engine back to the parts dealer in Calgary. He's going to sell the engine tranny for me and get me the C8.3 from the '92 Monaco.

Posts will be few and far between from now until the middle of November. This coming Friday I am off to Guatemala to do some volunteer dentistry for 10 days. Upon my return I have a concert the following weekend and then a fundraiser for the Charitable organization Dentistry For All on the 13th of November. So forgive the lack of posts, but I will return!!

It seems so simple....

So many times I have found on this project that I simply need to walk away and let things simmer. I talked last time about how I was unable to get the inner lug nuts off and I was at my wits end trying to figure out what my options were. I considered cutting the end off the lug wrench and grinding the shaft into a 3/4" octagon to fit into a socket on the impact wrench. Hell I even went as far as to go shopping for a specialty socket. Then the other night as I was typing a blog post it came to me. As simple as it could be. Embarrassing really that the solution could likely have been thought of by a 5 year old. Come to think of it next time I might just call on my kids to come brainstorm with me. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.

 I already had everything I needed right under my nose.... a pipe wrench and scrap lumber.......uuhhhhgh!

 Once the tire was finally off, we could proceed with removal of the axle, undo the shackles, undo the leaf springs...

 Viola! Of course these things do take time and the days are getting shorter. Perhaps I can get a better pic in the daylight

in the end we kwazi rolled the axle out, kwazi because we had to use the come-along as well. Unfortunately we didn't have much to hook the come-along to...being manly men...comfortable with out inner manliness...I drive a Jetta and Randy was driving his Miata tonight....needless to say Michelle had a good chuckle at our expense when she came home to find my jetta just about being puled back towards the bus with every pull of the come-along. But it DID work!

 

While Randy and I were playing in the driveway...others were playing in the garage....I promised Randy I wouldn't post the pic of him on the pogo stick. I'll save that for later!

Treading Lightly

 I thought I would use the same header that I used when I went online to the Flx community looking for advise. I am removing the rear tires so that I can eventually remove the rear axle. Seems simple right?
Come on....you know better than that!

 On the passenger side I managed to get all the lug nuts off and then I stalled... the inner rim seemed to be frozen (rusted) to the hub. I tried my usual methods of pry bar, swearing, sledge hammer, swearing, all my superhuman strength, swearing.....I think you get the picture. Anyway the post online resulted in a few suggestions, and the simplest one worked! Seems perfectly logical now but at the time I was plum out of ideas....except for the swearing...still had lots of that.
A small bottle jack wedged between the frame and the rim edge...POP!...off she came. The drivers side(above) has presented it's own challenges. You may remember some controversy with the drivers side wheels from a year ago....http://49clipper.blogspot.com/2009/12/rookie-mistake.html

A learning experience but this is not the same mistake. This issue was one of strength. On the rear wheels the inner rim is held onto the hub with special lug nuts that are threaded on the outside. This allows the outer rim to be secured onto the hub with it's own lug nut.Capishe?
Problem is you can't use an impact wrench with a regular socket....the inner lug nut has a square head. So the only lug wrench I have is an original from 1949(ish) .

Bendy bar

Seems simple enough, except the bar with the lug wrench just doesn't cut the mustard. It held in there to remove the passenger side inner rim, and 4 of 10 inner lugs on the drivers side. Now it has deformed enough that it won't hold...she just bends right away.

Sometimes you just let a problem sit and percolate. Like my Amma's coffee the longer you let it sit the more concentrated the problem becomes until the solution just pops out at you. Except her coffee got so strong it would just pop you...yet I digress...
So I let the rim sit and I moved on...or under.. and started to remove the linkages holding the axle to the springs.

I started this post on Sunday (Jeff's birthday 10-10-10) but I am finishing the publishing of it Monday morning and I think I may have a solution to my lug nuts! I'll keep you posted....(sorry, couldn't help myself)

Another day.

Well there she is, took me a good part of the afternoon yesterday to pull the 5.9 out of the cradle, block it on the palette and then put it all back together. Tranny lines, turbo unit, rad lines etc etc. Strap it down and get it ready for transfer to the auto parts place.

 

On another topic, I of course need mud flaps...but in my search I was never really happy with what I found, UNTIL I found a local Calgary company that laser cuts out designs and can bolt them onto whatever size of mud flap tickles your fancy! I sent them a picture of the emblem, they digitized it and then viola....pretty snazzy mudflaps!!

Ohhh boy here we go.....again.

 Sometimes in life you make a decision in blind trust because you know in your gut it is right. Like marrying Michelle when we were just the tender age of 21. Looking back we think "wow we were young!!"...but it was just 'right' and 20 years later it still is. Other times in life you make a decision based on blind trust that the research that you have done is encompassing enough to help guide you too the right choice....."I think it's right!"
Often still a good and arguable choice....but maybe not "right"

 Take the Cummins B5.9L. A great engine, a workhorse, very reliable, and has enough oompfh to power the bus. But....from all the reports and discussions with Flxy owners, particularly ones who do this alot!, not enough oompfh to get up over the mountains and maintain speed in a good headwind.....hmmmm mountains and chinooks.......hmmmm.
Yes just like in hockey, the trick is to know when to pull the first line and send in the third. The 5.9 will do the job....but we(I) would always be frustrated. Can you see where I'm going with this?

 Let me introduce you to the Cummins C series engine the C8.3. Still a mechanical engine but lots more oompfh. This is the engine that is used in plenty of motorhomes, dump trucks, firetrucks etc.
Just so happens that a gent (friend of my business partner Rob) who helped source out some parts for me before, has access to a C8.3 with a paired Allison MT643 from a low milage 1992 Monaco diesel pusher motor home...and he's willing to help sell the 5.9/A518.
It's what he does...Western Auto&Truck Parts in Calgary
2602 52 Street Se
Calgary, AB T2B 1N2
(403) 272-8891
(Shameless plug)

Another bennifit is the A518 transmission (above left)which is on the 5.9 is 8" longer than the Allison MT643.(on the right)
You can see the difference!
Which is also good because the C8.3 is 4" longer than the B5.9. Soooooo in the end it would be a next gain of the coveted 'ooompfh' and a net loss of length....thus allowing a slightly longer drive shaft!
And finally..... the Monaco also would have a rear axle that is geared for the engine/tranny combo!
How can I not?
How do I break the news to the Mrs.........

A lovely Day...a lovely lazy day...

So today started at a very early hour for us given that it is the weekend. It's funny really how you forget the way things were, it's been a while for us.We are babysitting my nephew this weekend, and as kids go, this kid is golden. I really don't think his Mom&Dad should have a second, because chances are, statistically, they can't have another kid as easy going as this one. Don't get me wrong he's not doing dishes and taking out the trash unasked, but if they have another they might be in a very rude awakening! 

I have no idea why that last section is underlined when you drag the cursor over it....they have upgraded to a new format...and I haven't mastered it yet. Anyway I have been trying to get ready for the snow. I want to have doors on the front. I am still unsure if I am going to have door frames (perhaps of aluminum pipe) or if these are just going to drape across the front. But this was my communication with my "tarp guy". I eagerly await his response!

So a good part of today was spent trying to create a template for the interior wall shape/roof line. Any overhead storage, separation wall between engine room and living area will follow the same template. Being a pack rat has some advantages, after the kids were done playing in the cardboard boxes the RV furniture came in, I could use it for this job!

Fancy?...no. Sexy?...no. But to me it was nothing but good times.
After I had cleaned out some of the engine bay quilt work( as previously mentioned) it looks like Al Capone made Swiss cheese out of it...look how riddled it is with holes!