I Hate Meeses To Pieces

I live in a semi rural area, surrounded by brush and many large open fields. As a result, mice are a problem. They get into my shop, leave turds everywhere, chew up anything that I leave out, and generally make my life miserable. I put out bait and spring traps with varying degrees of success. The bait disappears, yet I never smell any decomposing critters. The traps work pretty well and I will continue to use them.
I saw this contraption on the net a while back, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The soda can is baited with peanut butter. When Mickey and Minnie crawl up the ramp and try to dine on it, the can spins on the rod and deposits them into the pool. I could have left out the water and disposed of them "humanely", but I don't give a rats ass (pun intended). Die, fricken' vermin

Wooden It Be Nice?

Finished making the pattern for the pump housing today. As I stated before, it is three pieces of 3/4 plywood sandwiched together. I used the gasket to trace the shape and I bandsawed it out. The recess was made with a circular pattern and a router. I used my spindle sander to smooth the sides. I tilted the table a few degrees to give it some draft so it will pull out of the greensand mold. I sprayed the whole thing with sandable primer/surfacer and coated it with automotive, lacquer based, spot putty and sanded the whole thing smooth. Another couple of coats of the primer, a bit of finish sanding and there ya go, one pattern. I'll wax it before I ram up the mold. The recess was made slightly conical with some Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty so it too will have sufficient draft to release from the sand. I could have left out the recess and machined it, but that's a lot of extra work
While I was whittling, I made a pattern for the pulley. I could have gone to Pick a Part and, possibly, found one that would work. I figured I could make one in less time and for free. Plus, I get extra bragging rights for making my own stuff.
Today I got some pictures emailed to me by a V-8 biker that built a pump similar to mine. His and mine are almost identical. Since I consider him to be a bit of a genius (though not a Boy Genius™), I feel my design is a good one and should work flawlessly. He also offered some suggestions to make the entire unit more compact. Since this would involve machining the pump housing, I have opted to keep the original size pump. I expect that it will never give me a bit of trouble, but if it does and I need to change it, I don't want to have to cut down another pump, especially if I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere.

We Will Pump You Up, Girlie Men

Well, today I started the, much anticipated, water pump project. My goal is to build a belt driven pump, using an easily available automobile unit. I have never trusted the Jabsco pump that BH uses. If it conks out, you're screwed unless you're near a marine supply house or you carry a spare. I searched for quite a while for a fairly compact pump with a simple round housing. I finally settled on the Chrysler 383/440/Hemi unit. As it turns out, I was not the first to "discover" the MoPar unit. Another V-8 biker also has experimented with it with good results. There is also a remote mounted pump for V-8 Porsche conversions that uses it, so, it would seem, I'm in good company. I whistled down to my local parts house and they ordered it for me. I had to wait an agonizing 1 hour for it to arrive. Upon getting it home and having a look at it, I think it will be an easy and fun project.
The first thing I did was to glue together 3 pieces of 3/4" plywood for the pattern for the housing. I will be casting it from aluminum using my little foundry furnace. Plywood isn't the best material for patterns because of the rough edges. I will have to spend a bit more time finishing the edges with putty and getting it nice and smooth so I can pull it from the sand mold.

Cool Runnings

After being laid up on the couch for over a month, with the side effects of radiation/chemo, I decided I was well enough, today, to go to the shop and work on the bike a bit. A lot of ideas have been buzzing around in my noggin regarding making it more dependable and less reliant on Boss Hoss for parts, etc.
The primary idea is to eliminate the Jabsco bilge pump. They are not, especially, unreliable but failures have and do occur. I want to be able to go to any parts store and buy a pump, off of the shelf, and install it in the parking lot with ordinary tools. I have a pump in mind and have designed it mentally. More to follow.
Another item that troubles me is the factory coolant manifold. As built, it directs coolant from the pump to the inlets in the block on each side of the timing cover. Seems simple enough. I, as well as others that I have spoken with, believe this part was ill designed. As you can see in the first photo, coolant comes up the left side of the manifold (right side in the photo, left side of the engine) and then to the left coolant inlet and then to the right inlet. The problem is, the coolant wants to keep going in a straight line to the right side of the engine, bypassing the left side. Enough coolant dribbles into the left side to keep it relatively cool, but I'm willing to bet the right side runs cooler than the left. I don't have a point and shoot thermometer, so I can't prove it, but it makes perfect sense to my imperfect mind. So, what I did was to plug the original inlet on the manifold and put a "Tee" fitting between the two block fittings. This will allow a fairly equal amount of coolant to enter both sides of the engine. The second photo shows the modified manifold. Additional plumbing will be added later, from the "Tee" to the water pump. I have never had an overheating problem with my bike, but I still feel this modification is a good one.

Choppers, Bobbers and other nonsense

I read a lot of stuff online and peruse the bike magazines at the newsstand pretty often. I rarely buy them because I'm a cheapskate and they offer very little in the way of real down home DIY stuff. Iron Horse is an exception and I sometimes actually buy a copy. Several thing bug me in all the mags and online boards. It has to do with terminology and it's misuse. The younger guys are the torchbearers for the old guys and they're blowing it. I'm sorry, but many of them don't know their asses from their elbows as far as tradition, or as many like to call it, "old school". I've already ranted earlier about the non existent "suicide shift", so I don't need to belabor that point. Let's move on to the "bobber". First of all, the term "bobber" was invented just a few years ago, so the term "old school bobber" is a bit of an oxymoron. Sorta like an old school 2010 KIA. BTW, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the term, "old school" or even worse "skool" gives me the runs. Find a new term, you've worn that one out. Anyhoo, way back when, the early bikers bought old HDs and Indians and began stripping them down, not much though was given to looks. Front fenders were removed, rears were cut off at the hinge, windshields, bags and other unnecessary stuff was chucked into the dumpster. The result was a "Bob Job" or, before HD trademarked the term a "Fat Bob". All went well for a while until one of them decided that maybe an 18" wheel on the front might look lighter and might just handle a bit better like the Limey bikes. Then, again after looking at the foreign machines he thought that it might look a little better without that big ol' gas tank. So he got himself a Mustang tank or maybe he cut down the stock 3 1/3 gallon tanks. That big, fat rear fender is beginning to look out of place on this sleek machine, so he finds a '36 Ford spare tire ring and makes hisself a skinny rear fender. The pogo stick and it's 3 foot wide seat got the heave-ho and a Bates spoon was installed. What you have now is a chopper. It didn't have a raked frame, it didn't have a 5 foot long front end, a rear tire that was 10 inches wide, an Easter egg paint job or a "more money than brains" douche sitting on the seat. They were fundamental machines. No nonsense, no superfluous bling. Shortly after this they began to chrome them up, add a nice, basic, paint job and in my humble, yet always accurate, opinion (remember, I am a Boy Genius™), created the quintessential chopper. The choppers of the mid 60's were the high point. Nothing that came after made them better looking, better handling or better bikes overall. I'll take Dick Hirschberg's (He was the original Galloping Goose) Knucklehead over any Bourget, OCC crap wagon, ugly assed HD Rocker or any of the rest. They don't get it. None of these bikes are choppers or bobbers, if that's the term you insist upon. They are bikes built to resemble choppers or bob jobs. Some may be nice, but they ain't the real deal and they ain't for me. Plus, I don't want to ride anything that I have to lean to one side to see past the gas tank. What are these clowns thinking of??
The second picture is Hirschbergs 69 Electraglide. He built it from a brand new bike 2 years before Willie G. Davidson "designed" the 71 FX Superglide. You don't suppose this picture from Hot Rod magazine influenced his creative juices? Nahhh, had to be a cowinkydink.

Going to the Movies

Time to shift gears again. I remember going to the scary movies when I was a kid. When the big moment arrived, I always hid or looked away. I couldn't look at the monster. I went to another monster movie last month. It was called, "John's Colonoscopy". As I lay on the exam table with a doctor and a couple of nurses guiding a camera up my exhaust pipe, I watched the monitor. I saw the monster. It was as ugly as any alien, Frankenstein or boogeyman that I've ever seen at the movies. Unlike the, aforementioned, creatures, this monster is alive and all too real. There was no biopsy required. The doctor said, as I lay there, "You have colon cancer". I was floored. They rolled me out to a recovery area where I had to tell my beautiful wife what I had seen. We went home with no real answers. Just a few papers and a picture of the monster. I told her to put it away. I didn't want to see it again. I cannot look at the monster.
I was scheduled for a CT scan. I went in and had the procedure and was sent home again. A doctor needed to look at the scan and determine what it revealed. I waited. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer. We drove to the hospital this past Friday, August 7th. My intent was to pound on some one's counter or desk until I had some answers. I went to the GI unit and simply told the lady at the window that I was here to find out if I'm going to live or die, because I need to prepare for either scenario. She said, "come back Monday morning and you can talk to the doctor". Yesterday arrived. I brought my wife and my posse with me. My pastor and his wife and two other good friends from our church. We sat in the waiting room for about an hour, waiting. I became very anxious and afraid. I started to shake, uncontrollably. Finally it was my turn to face my mortality. The doctor was a cute girl, seemed about 12 years old to my aging eyes. She told us that the CT scan showed no evidence of any spread, that it is a localized lesion. I will still need major abdominal surgery in a month or so. They will do a bowel resection. I asked if a colostomy might be done and she said it is always a possibility , but it didn't seem likely from what she had seen. I can live with one but, like everyone else, would prefer not too. I have too many cool T shirts. I still have more ahead of me, but I can do that standing on my head. I've been trying to loose some weight (down 12 pounds so far) so this upcoming procedure, while a bit extreme, should allow me to reach my goal of 200 lbs. or less.
To all who have gotten this far, consider this next statement carefully.
If you are 50 or over, get a colonoscopy. Get a prostate exam. Get a mammogram. Get a Pap smear. Be pro-active about your health care. Don't wait until you're bleeding out of an orifice or a lump gets bigger or it takes 10 minutes to take a leak. You do not want to hear the words that I heard. You do not want to plan your own funeral in your mind. It looks as though I got lucky and dodged the bullet. The monster is no quitter, however. I will continue to keep a close eye out for him from this point on. Do the same for yourselves and the ones that you love. The monster has no pity and no conscience.

Unchain My Heart

The chain drive that I put on my bike has lost it's luster. It rattles, flops around, stretches and slings chain lube. It's time to switch back to a belt. I'm looking at the Gates Eliminator belt. It comes highly recommended. It is supposed to be stonger than any belt on the market, including the Gates GTs that Boss Hoss uses. As with all of the available belts, it is only available in finite lengths. Right now I am looking at running a 40/72 tooth sprocket ratio which will give me around 2500 RPMs at 73 mph with a 25 inch diameter tire. Doing some quick and dirty calculations,I think I will need a 44 inch belt. The closest that Gates has is about 46 inches, so I will end up with another inch of wheelbase. Not bad. I was aiming for as short a bike as possible when I began this conversion. I am at 79 inches right now, so I can live with 80. The pulleys for this belt are different than the stock BH pulleys. The have, what is known as, an RPP pattern. Reinforced Parabolic Profile, whatever that means. The countershaft pulleys are no problem. They are held on with the QD bushings, same as stock. The rear is a different story. All that is available is a large, heavy cast iron unit. It weighs about 40 pounds. I'm not a chassis guy, but I do know that unsprung weight is important and you want to keep it as low as possible. I don't know why, and maybe it's no biggee. One guy that I correspond with says he has no problems with his, so I may just go ahead and run one and see how it goes. I may try to cut an aluminum one later. I have a horizontal mill and a dividing head, but not a hell of a lot of experience. I would cut one from MDF first to see if my skills and math are up to snuff. I have a bit more research to do before I begin. I can't afford to screw up and start again. Money is too tight right now. I still have my Nesco to sell for additional funds, but I wanted to wait until I'm sure that the Ranger was the right choice (it was) and for the market to go up a bit so I can get the best price.