Temporary Home, Shop and Wheels

[oliver2-44 9,743]

The picture says it all!  But theirs a story. 
So my wife is a Family Nurse Practicer and recently semi-retired from Texas Tech University teaching Family Nurse Practitioners. She had always enjoyed counseling and decided to get her Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Degree/License.  She had completed her course work and had to do 500 hours of Intern  work.  It’s a challenge to find clinics that will work with Interns. We took our RV to Wichita Falls Tx where she will she will work for 10 days at a clinic

    The lower storage of the RV is packed with several projects I’ve brought along. 
     We also brought along my sons Electric Bikes for me to have some transportation since my wife will have the car.  Goya love a working girl, but no pay for intern hours. 
    We arrived in Wichita Falls at 6:20 last night just as the radio issued a weather bulletin warning of heavy rain, hail and a tornado threat. Before I could hook the RV up rain and small hail began. We watched slow circulation in the very dark cloud and identified the nearby cinder block RV Park Community Center as our safe place if needed. 
Thankfully the lite hail only lasted 5 minutes.  But the rain continued.  I funky hooked up the RV this morning.  
    We’ve been working on a major addition at my oldest sons house. Thankfully he had contractors doing 50% and we are doing 50%

It’s now ready to move the existing electric,water, sewer and  natural gas to new connections. Since his house will be without utility services for a few days, his family moved to our house while we’re gone. 
    Follow along for the next 10 days as I do some projects out on that big orange cable spool workbench and do some exploring on the electric bike. 

Edited March 26 by oliver2-44

[ebinmaine 67,455]

[squonk 41,079]

Everytime I see one of those spools I think about a friend of mine who was an electrician. He had one of those spools as a coffee table in his apartment. There was a mountain of wire nuts that grew bigger and bigger on it. One day I stopped by and the table was cleaned off. I asked him what happened and he said his boss (his Dad) ran out of wire nuts and wanted to know where the heck they all went! 

[953 nut 55,198]

6 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

  Follow along for the next 10 days as I do some projects out on that big orange cable spool workbench and do some exploring on the electric bike

Looking forward to it.

[oliver2-44 9,743]

The wind was still this morning after last nights rain. But by noon it change to 10-20mph wind gust for the rest of the day. So not much outside project work.  We’re at the start of the Texas Panhandle and a stones throw from Oklahoma.  Still about 3-1/2 hours from @ClassicTractorProfessor  

 I brought a small box of Kohler stators and coils I’ve been needing to test, and my manual. Two good stators and 3 junk 12v coils.  

One of the RV LED lights began flickering so I replaced it with a spare as this is not the first one. LED bulbs may last 1000’s of hours, but it’s the  cheap drivers that fail. 

As I was changing the light I noticed water on the floor. Did some investigating and found the bathroom sink faucet connection has a very slight seep.  Snugging it up didn’t help. So when my wife returned I ran to an RV Supply and got several .69 cent special RV cone washers. Thankfully that did the trick. Ya Gota love RV,s quality construction. 

[Pullstart 62,840]

9 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

Ya Gota love RV,s quality construction.

said no one ever!  

[ClassicTractorProfessor 5,314]

11 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

We’re at the start of the Texas Panhandle and a stones throw from Oklahoma.  Still about 3-1/2 hours from @ClassicTractorProfessor  

When you live out in the middle of nowhere like I do, seems like EVERYTHING is at least a 3.5 hr drive 

[oliver2-44 9,743]

Tuesday adventure started with it being 35 degrees, where has my Texas spring gone to?  Do I working on my taxes inside for the morning.  Awhile back I picked up a small torch set at an estate sale. 

 

I

did some practice brazing on my Horse shoe nail cross projects. I had bought a mini torch of Amazon, but it just didn’t put out enough heat for the nails size.  So  I went back to my regular torch.  But I have trouble with the torch pressure pushing the little pieces around.  I sort of got one out of 4 brazed together and stopped for the day. 

   The city has about 20 mile of concrete trail not quite in a full circle yet. I took the electric assist bike and rode about 8 miles. The “assist” featuresite is nice on the rolling up an down the river bank sections

The Wichita river is always sandy reddish brown color from the red soil found here. It is a shot river that flows into the Red River that separates Texas and Oklahoma. 
    Another project I brought along was a drill bit sharpener and a bunch of drill bits.  It does a good job, but I wonder if it will last through all of them. 

Edited March 27 by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 9,743]

Today i checked in to attending some museums since its cold this morning again.

The Train Museum, The North Texas Museum, and the Sheppard Air Force Base/Call Field History Museums never reopened after Covid! Ba-Humbug!

But a Jenny to Jet displays moved to the Regnal Airport nearby.

  

IN 1917 before WW1 Call Field was established at Wichita Falls as an Army Air Corps Jenny Pilot Training Base..  Training Air Craft Mechanics was added when the war began and the need ramped up.

 The base was deactivated after the end of the war.

In the spring of 1941 with war in Europe underway, the Air Force was looking to expand and land next to the old Call Field was obtained.  Initially it was intended for Aviation Mechanic training.. 

By January 1942 its mission again expanded to pilot training.

Today it is the largest Air Force Jet Pilot Training Base and also includes Jet Pilot Training for our NATO Allies. today their are roughly 20,000 military and civilian personnel on the base.

This restored T38 is showcase as one of the jet trainers previously used at the base. today the base includes pilot training for multiple jet aircraft from fighters to air tankers.

This afternoon i did some more drill bit sharpening.

Then got into polishing some steering wheels.  

Not a great picture, but on this Suburban wheel you can see the high point on the bottom side of the wheel are worn the worst, with a dull spot about the size of a small button. 

I had already done a general one over polish on the wheel before this picture.

After polishing with white tripoli, then red rouge compound dull spots are gone. The wheel has a few larger scratches that I didn't try to sand/ polish out due to their size.

So on the left is the completed WH suburban wheel and the wheel to my Mayrath.  

On the right is another later style WH wheel that I've done part of.  Below are the polishing wheels I've been using in my drill. 

(Doing this with a true shop stand mounted buffer wheel  sure would be easier than holding the wheel in my lap or between my knees).

But is sure kept me occupied this afternoon while my wife was training. 

Edited March 28 by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 9,743]

Any Wisconsin guru’s out there?  Yesterdays project was starting to do a final clean up to head toward reassemble of this Wisconsin Engine. It started life as a Wisconsin ADH, 3.6hp. The ADH, AE, AEH, AEHS are the same engine except the cylinder and piston. Sine the cylinder needed to be bored along with a new piston,  I bought a AEH cylinder and 0.020 piston for it. 
     I really have no current use for this engine. I got it free and haven’t worked on a Wisconsin engine or a Magneto since high school.  Why convert it to an AEH?  Well a WH Sr, Gibson, Shaw, and some of the other older late 40’s early 50’s garden tractors used AEH engines. So if it’s going to be on the shelf that make it more comparable with something I’m interested in finding. 
 

This engine had the most sludge almost tar build up I’ve ever seen

There’s actually a crankshaft tapered roller bearing under the black crud on the left side of the picture 

This cover is on the back of the magneto shaft connection

The engine got a lot of initial cleaning at home when I partially disassembled it. The cylinder has been at a machine shop to be bored, new valve guides, and valves and seats ground. They finally got to it right before this trip, so I brought it along. 

 

 

[oliver2-44 9,743]

There was no way to drive this bearing cut out of the main crankcase bearing cover. After trying to pry it out a few different ways I decided Ed to color it with my Dremel cut off tool. It took 3 slots not quiet all the way through to get it to collapse/pry out 

Next under the race is the metal cork seal holder. After digging the cork out of it with a screwdriver I was able to drive it out  It got a little bent up but I really didn’t se any other way  A little hammer tapping and it looks better/usable now.  If you look close you can see 4 little bent up prongs on the inside that keep the cork from rotating. I read when installing the cork to coal it in water or oil to keep it from crumbling.
 

I was surprised to find the gasket set didn’t include the cork seals. I’ve read where some people have replaced them with modern rubber seals. Monday I plan to carry the seals housing to an Industrial Bearing Supply and see if they have or can get seals to fit. 

There wasn’t a good surface to drive the crankshaft bearing off.  Both sides were a tight fit.  So I removed the cover and rollers with my Dremel cut off wheel and used this front ledge to drive it off. I’m going to measure the journal and bearing to decide if I need to put the crank in the freezer and bearing in hot water to make them a little easier to install.

I cleaned up the ends of this copper rod I use as a punch to discover someone has built up each end with brass.  I think I picked it up at a yard sale.

     Well thats a Saturday mornings work. 
 

Edited March 30 by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 9,743]

This morning we attended Easter Services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Their youth choir played the bells as part of the service. There was a very meaningful sermon fitting for our times.  
    I don’t post many personal things, and it may seem a little crazy that my wife is working hard on her  Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Degree/License at our age.  Over the years she has had a gift as a Family Nurse Practitioner and a Professor listening to and helping people in many ways. So her future Counseling is a progression of that gift. She plans to do some part time paid Counseling and volunteer her services to some local non profit groups.  My job is to support her 

   To that end I grilled pork chops, squash, mushrooms and made baked potatoes for a filling lunch. She had a course paper to put the finish touches on. She’s only made 1 “B” over her past 4 degrees, so she’s not changing now. 

    So I set up to lap the Wisconsins valves and discovered the machine shop that cut the seats actually lapped the valves. What a nice surprise!  So I installed the springs and keepers and for once didn’t loose one. Done, and she was finished to. No pictures as she was using my phone as an internet Hot-Spot 
   So we took a 11 mile round trip bike ride on the city trails with the electric assist bikes.  Found a patch of blue bonnets which are a little far north of their normal range

This year has been a bumper year for the blue bonnet wild flowers back home. We rode along the river trail to Wichita Falls, “Falls” but their pumps were turned off. The original river falls at this spot we’re washed away in a flood many years ago. These side stream falls were built next to the site of the original

Maybe some actual engine assembly pictures tomorrow. 

 

Edited April 1 by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 9,743]

Monday mid morning I took a 12 mile round trip ride the opposite direction. This took me along the river and down town open space that connect 2 small and one very large park.  They have a lot of colorful flower beds in their parks 

Monday afternoon/evening was drizzly rain. So a good indoor job was to install the piston on the rod & rings. The manual recommends warming the piston in hot water to expand it a little.  I also warmed the pin end of the rod. 

I also put the piston pin in the freezer 

The freezer caused a distraction since the parts needed to soak a while

The manual says the new pin in a new piston is a light press fit. I used an oak dowel as a driver and it took more than tapping, but not hard hammering. I’m always glad when the pin and rings installation is done. 

Wednesday I continued some assembly.  I used Aviation Permatex on the gasket between the crankcase and  cylinder. I’m using the green Lucas Assembly Lube on the valve tappers and everywhere. 

This is the cylinder with valves installed 

On the cylinder to crankcase bolts I used Permatex thread seal and lock since these bolts go all the way through the crankcase. 

Valve tappers clearance is 0.004 to 0.011. I like to set the intake valve clearance on the low side of the middle and got 0.007. I like to set the exhaust valve clearance on the high side of the middle since it has more expansion and got 0.009. 

 

Edited April 4 by oliver2-44

[ebinmaine 67,455]

5 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

freezer caused a distraction since the parts needed to soak a while

 

 

Freezers. Getcha every time.  

 

 

Been enjoying this thread. Thanks for taking the time to post it.  

[953 nut 55,198]

The biggest shortcoming with an RV is the freezer is too small and you can't get enough ice cream in them!                 

 

The parks you visited look beautiful, glad you are enjoying the trip and taking us along.