I’m back with an Esky this time

[Snowbound]

Left the house this morning at 8am with a chance of a few drizzles throughout the morning and then clear skies until 7:30pm when the storms were suppose to come in.


Had a great turnout despite the incoming rain, close to 200 bikes. We got to the fairgrounds at 9:20 and paid our entry and got our dog tags. I rode in honor of SSGT Jeremy Daniel Smith who gave all at the young age of 26. My wife rode in honor of SPC Christian Jacob Chandler who paid the ultimate sacrifice at an even younger age of 20.



We got lined up with the other bikes and checked out some nice bikes, picked up t-shirts like we always do and checked out this rig that the guy had wrapped in honor of his son who died on Mother’s Day, May 14th 2007.


When they introduced the owner operator everyone went over to him standing on the back of his truck to show support and give thanks to the gold star recipient.


Kickstands up at 10:30 to take off from Grundy County Fairgrounds heading toward the memorial wall in Marseilles.
At 10:20 the skies opened up and it down poured for 20 minutes. They postponed the start of the ride until 11:00. We all got drenched. The smart ones had rain gear, I wasn’t that smart.
Got on the road and 5 minutes in started raining again. We were about mid pack.


We made it about 3/4 of the run and turned off to seek refuge in the local watering hole. My wife and I luckily had a change of clothes so we got out of our soaked hoodies and shirts and put some dry ones on. That helped but we were still 40 miles from home and no sign of the rain letting up, was only gonna get worse. Saddled back up and hauled ass to interstate 80 and ran 85 miles/hour back home. Stripped down in the laundry room and took a hot shower to get warm. What a day to say the least.
3 days I’ll never get back cleaning this bike and it’s a total mess now.



Gonna order some delivery, stuff my face and lay around and be lazy the rest of today. All I need is a cape and you can call me Super Lazy!

To all you dads out there, happy Father’s Day and I hope you all have a safe and great weekend. Enjoy every minute of it because as I was reminded again today, life is short, shorter for some and let us all be thankful for everyone who serves and has served. They will all be “Forever Remembered”.

 

[Snowbound]

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/arlington-tx/jeremy-smith-4633069


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[Snowbound]

https://www.stripes.com/news/how-a-...d-up-in-a-german-court-4-years-later-1.514177


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[petethepug]

Hmmm, does your wife drive your Esky or does she really drift it?




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[Snowbound]

Hmmm, does your wife drive your Esky or does she really drift it?




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I think we both know the answer to that question.


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[Snowbound]

I had to work late but when I came home I figured I better get this sway bar fixed. First thing I did was remove the sway bar and end links. I had to soak the bolts on drivers side and work it back and forth but I did manage to remove bolts without breaking one. With the sway bar on the bench, I was able to just grab what was left of the mount and welded nut with a pipe wrench and using an impact, break the bolts off. Can’t use any of that broken crap anyway.

Now it’s time to cut the busted mount off the frame.


Drivers side is nasty but still solid. Gonna clean it up, grind it down and paint it.


Got the mount cut off frame.


Grabbed the grinder and knocked it down some. I didn’t want to take it down to frame because I wanna weld on the good steel of old mount rather than weld direct to frame. This way if I have to cut it off or make adjustments, I’m not taking a chance of cutting into frame.
I

After I cleaned it up I spread some rust converter on the bare metal and surface rust. I’m only focused on the task at hand.

2 coats and I also used a wire brush to scuff the rust converter in. It dries to black primer finish but I didn’t make it that far tonight. As the rust converter was drying I cut out a piece of 3/16 steel, drilled some holes in it and welded 3/8 nuts to the top side of the plate.


Sometime mid morning 2mrw I’ll get back out there and get the plate bolted to the sway bar and then put sway bar in place so I can tack weld the new mounting plate in place and then fab up the sides and supports. Stay tuned, should have this and some other stuff done by 2mrw night.



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[Snowbound]

I’ve had a day from hell so I’ll make this update fast.

The rust converter after it sat over night.


I mounted the sway bar back up and to the plate I cut and drilled.


Then I started making the sides.



Once I got the sides tacked to the bottom plate I removed the mount and finished welding it.



Then I cleaned up the outside with a grinder.



Mocked up and tacked in to test fit.



Sway bar mounted up right like it used to so I completely burned it in and the slapped on the POR15.



I’ll admit, not my best work but I’m still happy with it. I had to change out a rack and pinion on my buddies SL series Mercedes and do a front wheel bearing and tie rods on a Ford Focus. That sucked. It doesn’t have a hub bearing, it’s a pressed bearing in spindle. I’m done. 9:20 and I have to be at work at 3am.



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[iamdub]

Great work!

 

[petethepug]

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[Snowbound]

Headed up north on Monday. It was hot and humid, an hour in to our 5-1/2 hour trip as I’m getting on 94 from 290, the ac decided to stop working. Just made it into Wisconsin and stopped at rest area to figure out what’s going on. Am I low on freon, like another leak? Hook up hose and can and low side is over 100PSI. WTF?! We stopped to fill up in Plover and I heard a grinding noise like a tensioner or idler bearing. That’s when I seen my issue, clutch on compressor decided to give up. Removed belt and finished the miserable ride.
Once we got there, it was 85* in the house so I turned on the air. As the house started cooling off, the air stopped working. If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have none at all. Already sweating my ass off, mosquitos and biting deer flies attacking me, I took the ac condenser apart. Cleaned the contacts in the switch and found the capacitor was ballooned.

The house was built in ‘00 so that puts the ac unit at 19 years old. I’m not spending $3k right now, closest town is 20 miles away but thankfully there’s an HVAC guy down the road. I’ve seen his truck pass the house before so I went over there and asked if he had a replacement capacitor by any chance. He did!! Wasn’t exact but I’m sure it would work and asked what he wanted for it. He said $40, I gave him $60 and said thanks and asked him to give me a quote to replace the condenser, line set and evaporator when he had time. Put that in and thank you baby Jesus, we had air again in the house. BTW, he said exactly that, $3k. No way, I’ll bring a new unit up next time I go and do it myself.

The next day I ran to town to get a compressor but nobody had one. The third parts store could have it the next morning. So I ordered a complete kit, compressor, accumulator, orifice tube, o-rings and pag oil.



After getting the parts, 20 miles south, headed back north to Minocqua 48 miles north from where we originally started to take kiddos to petting zoo and water park. After we got home from there I started taking the compressor off.


Removed skid plate, electrical connector, and removed bottom mounting bolts, I cleaned off the top of compressor so I wouldn’t introduce any contaminates into the system. Then I decided I better get the orifice tube apart and make sure it’s right before proceeding. Already checked the accumulator.


The line came apart a lot easier than I thought it would, the orifice tube fought me a little but once I got a 90* pick in there and turned it a little, I was able to pull it out. Glad I did that when I did because that stopped me in my tracks right there.


This thing must have had a compressor failure at some point because this was only the clutch that failed, so whoever replaced the compressor prior didn’t clean the system out. There’s no way I’m replacing all these parts knowing there’s contamination in the system.

So now I have to flush the lines and both evaporators, replace the condenser because there’s no way of getting it clean, and then replace all the components before evacuating the system before recharge. We ended up leaving last night at 11pm so it would be cooler and the kids and dog would sleep. Got home at 4:30 this morning.


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