It seems the whole country is experiencing out of sort weather. One brother lives in So Carolina and said they're experiencing drought and wildfires, two sisters live in Florida and they are experiencing drought too. I just saw the weather report for me and they are saying we're expecting a nor-easter tomorrow. It seems there's only been three days of nice weather days for the past two months. I wish I could move to someplace warmer that doesn't include snow and I hope to do it soon, my old bones can't take it anymore. I had to turn the heat on again today, it dropped to 63 in the house.

 

A cousin's wife (Erik) messaged me saying it was 40°F in Oshkosh, WI, today. He wasn't thrilled esp. when I told him it was 83°F here on the coast of NC.

 

Hi Art - I sold the '71 CS convertible I think two yrs ago, now. I wasn't trying to sell it. Someone (Ms. Wet Panties) saw it at my golf club, wanted to buy it, asked me the price, I told her the price & her husband bought it for her (Ms. Wet Panties) B'Day.

 

I made a nice set (black + red) of jumper wires w/ alligator clip end terminals. On a very positive note, my instrument cluster was delivered & is in the CBM (Circuit Board Medics) repair dep't. Lucky they're so close. FEDEX delivered it in one day - no overnight shipping (likely because it's such a short distance); Greenville, SC has a large FEDEX hub. Hubba, hubba, hubba...

 

Agree 100%. It sure seems like the "extremes" are happening more and more often, and more severe than before.

 

Good deal Norm! I can't remember, did you pay the extra for the same day turnaround service?

 

While these extremes appear unusual, perhaps more frequent(?) we've been systematically collecting severe storm (tornado) data for a mere 77 yrs; and, earlier data collection, I'd argue, was far from 'solid' systematic data - not even eight decades.

 

No I did not. Playing my cards hoping for a straight flush.

 

[QUOTE=Vintage Chief;serviced?
No I did not. Playing my cards hoping for a straight flush.
[/QUOTE]

Hoping you get to the bottom of the electrical issue with the Indian sooner than later, but at least you should have the instrument panel back in hand soon. 👍

 

I don't know....since I ordered a new relay, I thought I'd open up the supposed bad relay. All measurements indicate the relay has gone Tango Uniform, so I thought I'd open it up for a look-see. Can't really see any broken wires, it looks new inside, etc. Yet, on the exterior where there is solid evidence of green/blue oxidation/corrosion between the pins, I suspect the green/blue corrosion operates like a salt bridge between the pins likely shorting out the relay. I'm not about to test my theory, a new one is in the mail (soon I hope)...I ordered it three hrs. ago.

 

Chris - Thanks, me too.

 

My lawn service "Juan's Lawn Care 'We Cut You, Ese'" was in full pull yesterday. I am picking up names for this yards. Sunday, I mowed the house yard and the garage roof and half the shop yard. Yesterday, I mowed the rest of the shop yard, the barn yard, the driveway, the parking lot yard, and the yard out by the road. I ran over a rock, then did it again. Just made noise. This property is dangerous to mow as I have not de-hazarded it fully, and some things have a lot of tall grass around them. The weedwhacker is going to stay at the property for a while and I will do some thorough excavating and investigation of things. If I can move the yard art, I will put it in the barn and sell it later, I just need to remove obstacles.

I think I have a coon living in a yard barn. Trap and a cheap 22 are going out there next trip.

I came home last night after about 6 hours of mowing, cleaned up, ate a burger, and was out by 10 and was woken up by the storm sirens at 2 with a severe thunderstorm. It went by and finally got back to sleep. This weather is very active, I have suspicions as to why, but people would think I'm nuts.

 

Norm that relay may be shorting enough to ground that it is not closing.

 

John - I love the way you think! Fingers crossed.

 

I trapped a Ground Hog/Marmot in a live cage my last year as an undergrad. Sacrificed the guy in the name of science - skinned, cleaned, crushed the bones (only need one tiny bone) then evaluated/mapped its chromosomal DNA Nucleolar Organizing Regions (NOR). Then we (some fiends) & I ate him.

 

I think that statement
translates to "We Cut You, Bro"

 

Man that's a ton of mowing! I sure hope you're able to get a much larger piece of mowing equipment in the near term. What you're up against right now sure doesn't sound sustainable without substantial time and pain!

 

Hi guys

There was originally a threat of more rain and potentially severe weather for this morning but thankfully it never materialized. Looks like clear sailing and nice weather thru Friday. The Memorial Day 3-day weekend weather looks wet for all 3-days. I'm hoping the forecast for Memorial Day changes because there's a Car Show scheduled for that day that I've had good success at in the past. If it does get rained out there is a rain date for June 1st.

I'm recording the NHL playoff's semi-final game right now and will start watching it here in a little while. Don't really have a dog in the fight, but I'm rooting for the Carolina Hurricanes over the Florida Panthers.

Hope everyone has a great evening!

 

Yeah, I cut you, ese, is a stereotypical thing a Mexican American gangbanger would say threatening someone with a knife. My name is Juan in Spanish, so it's a 90's joke. I am going to look at large grounds tractors in early June.

 

You mentioned this in a prior post. Will be exciting picking something out.

 

Just kids having fun...

 

x2, good for you! 👍

 

Like a cow on a flat rock down here Gotta SSS before dialysis

 

Good morning everyone.

Everyone started at 4 this morning so we could end early and go to AMT Day. Eh big deal. I'll pop in and then hit the road. It will be nice to be home early.

Rain this morning while I was getting ready. It poured but stopped when we went out to the car. Then it poured on the way to Mom's, then stopped when we had to get out. I believe that was divine and I appreciate it. Should divine be capitalized?

Thanks Jamesbo for keeping my secret. It isn't really a secret, anyone can come over and count for themselves. I'd say though the number has changed.

John you sound like me with the mowing. Though I don't mow 5 hours at a time, I do mow several days a week.

Well I've signed 17 wheels in an hour. There were a few left from yesterday so I had a good head start. I hope the rest of the day goes as well.

Have a good day everyone. It's Hump Day. If only.

 

Norm, you ever see Mrs. Panties out in your Olds? I hate it when I see my sold cars. I especially hate when I hear about everything that went wrong with it. Much better to sell to someone you don't know....

 

Greg you are absolutely right about selling a car to someone you know. When I was a kid I had a Volkswagen and my friend just coveted it. When I was done with it I sold it to him. He put all sorts of things on it like loud exhaust and the like, and every time he'd do something he'd tell me, that's how it's supposed to be. I never knew if he thought he was smarter than the people who built it or if he thought the car wasn't **** until he owned it.

Norm hope the gauge cluster comes out the way it needs to. That's some good service out of Fed Ex even if it is close. I had forgotten all about Ms. Wet Panties.

 

Greg - I've seen my car once - getting fuel at a service station. I heard from the new owners once - w/ a question about the aftermarket stereo I installed. I did forget to give them the instruction manual so I mailed it to them. Ms. Wet Panties husband has a vintage Bronco of some sort he works on himself & told me all about it. He bought my CSM & PIM w/ the car. I'm betting he's taking really good care of it (for her).

Mike - Thanks. At the moment I have a better feeling about the instrument cluster than the Indian. Knock-on-wood the Indian issue is the starter relay.

Yesterday, I removed, evaluated & cleaned the solenoid plunger. There was significant pitting from arcing on the circular copper contact ring located on the plunger so I sanded the copper ring best I could. It requires as much surface area as possible to deliver a solid pulse of amperage. I can get to at least one of two copper contacts (which oppose each other) inside the solenoid where the plunger (copper) ring engages. It also has a lot of pitting from arcing. I'm not 100% I can get to the other for removal. I'll try to remove and sand the one contact surface, then attempt to sand the other contact while it remains installed in the solenoid. Still evaluating the wires which feed into & out of the starter relay for any obvious signs of needed repair, install a couple new ring terminal connectors on the ground side, basic routine wiring maintenance. I might consider replacing both the (+) & (-) battery cables, as well - especially, since I have it torn down, the issue is electrical related & the more clean solid amps it can deliver the healthier the charging/starting/operating system. When you begin invading digits contained w/in the PCM, BCM & EFI modules you'd like as little attenuation as possible.

 

Instrument panel has been repaired and shipped today. Fair chance I may be installing it tomorrow, or at least it arrives tomorrow.

 

In an unrelated note, tracing wires at that relay has me questioning my abilities. I looked at a label I placed on a wire to that relay and it’s marked ‘Horn Relay’. I upgraded the OEM horn relay years ago with a far more favorable and louder horn. This is why I’m tracing wiring. Eh, all good - nothing but more diagnostics. Modest chance that relay may be involved to some degree. I continue to navigate the muddy waters.

 

Good deal Norm, get that sucker and get it back in, and then you can deal with the Indian at your leisure.

 

Chris - Yep, that’s the plan at the moment.

 

My backup daily has been dead in the garage for years. So much for that plan.

 

John - I guess you're lucky your truck has been so dependable. Just curious, what vehicle was supposed to be your daily back-up?

 

Here I am at the cross-roads, again. I will not bother ya'll w/ the minutia. It requires a risk/benefit analysis & I'm not going to tempt myself into making a poor decision. Let's just call it a day on the Injun.

Received a FEDEX update. Instrument cluster scheduled delivery tomorrow.

 

I wonder when Toyota will release their proposed new hybrid compact truck to North America? I'm not sure they've settles on a name, yet - Corolla, maybe? Curious how the HIMAX HILUX Toyota sales are going, as well. Couple of things for me to research further. Toyota appears to be seriously stepping up their game.

 

And, yet another FEDEX update. Scheduled delivery tomorrow between 11:40am & 3:40pm.

The Injun is too heavy for me to push up the small ramp onto my motorcycle lift. I have a couple come-alongs but it's dicey managing 800 lbs by myself - doesn't take much to tip the scales, so I'll let it sit on the concrete floor while I exercise my tired-*** old bones getting moving up & down all day & bending over. That lift makes life so much easier working on anything i.e. the JD ZTR mower, power edger, generator. Waist height is the way to go. Put one on your shopping list next month, John.

 

Norm, are you familiar with the chicken war?

 

Tariff war between U.S. & E.E.C.?

 

WTF, I just read about the Chicken Tax (Chicken War) & how Toyota managed it - most of it anyways - TLDR.

 

Jim - I read it early this morning & it didn't click. Thought about it (SSS) a couple times today until the light finally turned on. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.