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The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:00 am
by Lanval
God. What a day. What. A. Day.

We repaired last night, the child and I, to my brother's keep in the marches of Pasadena; it's defenses are more formidable, the food exquisite. The day broke chill and clear, promising the heat necessary to rouse Colin's passions as the phoenix sun rose again from the night's ashes. Before the arrival of the man himself, sausages from the grill with waffles made from scratch and strawberries. The juven were not called upon for this work, and thus dismissed attended to their various duties in the keep; chapters to were to be summarized, kanji to be practiced. We, my brother and I, drank rich, thick Italian roast from the Bialetti, and cast a keen eye on all approaches for the chucketa-chucketa that signified the nearing of Colin, and his new-to-him Rumble Bus.

The order of the day was simple; the rolled tubes that were used for transporting the coolant fore and aft had, over time, succumbed to the travails of water and metal; to wit: they were rotting from the inside out, springing leaks all along the seam of the pipe. No mere fix, no leak-based approach would work; only wholesale replacement of the pipes would do. Shall I speak of the unholy cost of such things? I will not; let it suffice to say that the demon Mammon was well fed that day, I tell you.

There were early steps; last week, while knocking around with Colin down in Irvine, we discovered the creaky, rotting old crossover pipe which brings coolant across the engine, had a pinhole leak. In addition, the S-pipe which snakes over the top of the engine to feed the heaters was pretty well rusted in spots, and needed to be replaced. So we did. This was all pretty easy, went by the numbers, I might say; we jousted with minor details such as how to get the new crossover pipe in without removing the flywheel.... will it work simply by removing a bracket which holds the alternator ~ Colin was skeptical, but I was certain; rather I played certain, in fact I merely hoped. It did in fact work, and we continued on.

Now, there is a bit of a hack-fix in place due to Colin accidentally breaking a 3 prong connector; I intended to fix/replace this, but in attempting to remove the remaining piece, I broke that one complete. Now we had to fix it, as Colin's previous fix would not work, as I had compromised the body piece which remained from the original break. A trip to Autozone provided the coolant for the upcoming refill, and some plastic pieces which would allow a fix. Colin took care of this while I lay beneath the van, trying to remove the pipes from the rubber hoses. I need to do this with some car, as I didn't have any replacement hoses, and worked slowly and attentively, only swallwing the odd bit of coolant here and there as we removed the pipes.

Now, I had bought replacement pipes which came in two sections, which were accompanied by the claim that the gas tank need not be removed to install. That's pretty optimistic in my view; in fact, after trying several different ways of installing the pipes, it was clear that lowering the gas tank at a minimum was necessary. This is the sort of thing for which Colin's presence is crucial; he had the tank down and the pipes in within 30 minutes. The pipes themselves were damned confusing to fit right. In fact, we finally ended up with the pipes reversed (that is, the inside pipe is outside, and verse vica) but with a functioning system. As the sun careened behind the hills, we filled and bled, filled and bled. A trip up and down the narrow, hilly streets of Pasadena, we stopped and bled, stopped and bled. Eventually we returned, the pipes holding water; I cleaned up; Colin and my brother enjoyed a pot roast with cooked vegetables, salad and other noisome delights.

I should add that during the day, Colin was exposed to my brother's 80 Volvo 260, leather interior, sport alloy wheels, knocking engine. Colin is brilliant, but occasionally has blind spots as here; he refuses to recognize the pure, unmitigated genius that is the Volvo ~ though to be fair, the 6 cylinder PRV engine is not Volvo's finest moment. Even so, he found somethings to enjoy, and some tips to my brother, and perhaps made another convert to the IAC way. Personally, when I hear Colin talk about Volvo, I would prefer he would do it in the hushed and reverent tones that aficionados reserve for the Sanctum Sanctorum's of their particular interest.

The ride back down to Irvine was unexceptional; the heater was substantive and heaterly; the cooling pipes appeared to hold, and when I got out and walked over to the passenger side to extract a sleepy young knight, I couldn't smell a drop of coolant; and that, THAT is why I gave over another day to the man. And now I return to the muck and detritus of my little life.

I followed Colin out of Pasadena, up the hill and into the night; I watched as he rose over the hill, and dropped down in his search for an open road, and the next meeting.

Best,

Michael L

(so tired. Pics later. Maybe much later. mea culpa)

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:40 am
by RSorak 71Westy
Most Volvos are solid but very very boring to car people. They just go from point A to point B with no excitement.

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:10 am
by Amskeptic
Lanval wrote:God. What a day. What. A. Day.

We repaired (poor choice of words in a mechanical forum)last night, the child and I, to my brother's keep in the marches (pretentious)of Pasadena; it's defenses are more formidable, the food exquisite. The day broke chill and clear, promising the heat necessary to rouse Colin's passions as the phoenix sun rose again from the night's ashes(?). Before the arrival of the man himself, sausages from the grill with waffles made from scratch and strawberries. The juven were not called upon for this work, and thus dismissed attended to their various duties in the keep; chapters to were to be summarized, kanji to be practiced. We, my brother and I, drank rich, thick Italian roast from the Bialetti, and cast a keen eye on all approaches for the chucketa-chucketa (not nearly so descriptive of a generator whine that actually signifies the approach of an air-cooled 1600) that signified the nearing of Colin, and his new-to-him Rumble Bus.

The order of the day was simple; the rolled tubes that were used for transporting the coolant fore and aft had, over time, succumbed to the travails [clumsy choice of word; as it is actually "effect of oxygen (in the water) upon the metal (of the pipes)"] of water and metal; to wit:(not witty enough) they were rotting from the inside out, springing leaks all along the seam of the pipe. No mere fix, no leak-based approach would work; only wholesale replacement of the pipes would do. Shall I speak of the unholy cost of such things? I will not; let it suffice to say that the demon, Mammon, was well fed that day, I tell you.

There were early steps; last week, while knocking around with Colin down in Irvine, we discovered (that)the creaky, rotting old crossover pipe which brings coolant across the engine,(<delete) had a pinhole leak. In addition, the S-pipe which snakes over the top of the engine to feed the heaters(,) was pretty well rusted in spots,(<delete) and needed to be replaced. So we did.(<grammatical gaffe) This was all pretty easy, went by the numbers, I might say; we jousted with minor details such as how to get the new crossover pipe in without removing the flywheel (crankshaft pulley).... will it work simply by removing a bracket which holds the alternator ~ Colin was skeptical, but I was certain;(,) rather I played certain,(;) in fact I merely hoped. It did in fact work, and we continued on.

Now, there is a bit of a hack-fix in place due to Colin accidentally breaking a 3 prong connector(state when, to strengthen the narrative); I intended to fix/replace this, but in attempting to remove the remaining piece, I broke that one complete. Now we had to fix it, as Colin's previous fix would not work, as I had compromised the body piece which remained from the original break. A trip to Autozone provided the coolant for the upcoming refill, and some plastic pieces which would allow a fix. Colin took care of this while I lay beneath the van, trying to remove the pipes from the rubber hoses. I need to do this with some car, as I didn't have any replacement hoses, and worked slowly and attentively, only swall(o)wing the odd bit of coolant here and there as we removed the pipes.

Now, I had bought replacement pipes which came in two sections, which were accompanied by the claim that the gas tank need not be removed to install. That's pretty optimistic in my view; in fact, after trying several different ways of installing the pipes, it was clear that (at a minimum)lowering the gas tank at a minimum (<delete) was necessary. This is the sort of thing for which Colin's presence is crucial; he had the tank down and the pipes in within 30 minutes. The pipes themselves were damned confusing to fit right. In fact, we finally ended up with the pipes reversed (that is, the inside pipe is outside, and verse vica(<being funny?)) but with a functioning system. As the sun careened (use "careered" as sun's trajectory is a constant) behind the hills, we filled and bled, filled and bled. A trip up and down the narrow, hilly streets of Pasadena, we stopped and bled, stopped and bled. Eventually we returned, the pipes holding water; I cleaned up; Colin and my brother enjoyed a pot roast with cooked vegetables, salad and other noisome delights.

noi·some   [noi-suhm] Show IPA
adjective
1.
offensive or disgusting, as an odor.
2.
harmful or injurious to health; noxious.


(I'm TELLING-ed)


I should add that during the day, Colin was exposed to my brother's 80 Volvo 260, leather interior, sport alloy wheels, knocking engine. Colin is brilliant, but occasionally has blind spots as here; he refuses to recognize the pure, unmitigated genius that is the Volvo ~ though to be fair, the 6 cylinder PRV engine is not Volvo's finest moment. Even so, he found somethings to enjoy, and some tips to my brother, and perhaps made another convert to the IAC way. Personally, when I hear Colin talk about Volvo, I would prefer he would do it in the hushed and reverent tones that aficionados reserve for the Sanctum Sanctorum's of their particular interest.

The ride back down to Irvine was unexceptional; the heater was substantive and heaterly; the cooling pipes appeared to hold, and when I got out and walked over to the passenger side to extract a sleepy young knight, I couldn't smell a drop of coolant; and that, THAT is why I gave over another day to the man. And now I return to the muck and detritus of my little life.

I followed Colin out of Pasadena, up the hill and into the night; I watched as he rose over the hill, and dropped down in his search for an open road, and the next meeting.

Best,

Michael L

(so tired. Pics later. Maybe much later. mea culpa)
NEEDS WORK!
C+

( :flower: p.s. did you enjoy correcting those 90 papers later??? :flower: )

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:18 am
by Amskeptic
Lanval wrote: We repaired the cooling pipes.
Michael L
Yeah, that went all right. We took da pipes off, den put da new pipes on. Got antifreeze all over ourself. Hey, that's the breaks, hah?
Colin :blackeye:

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:17 am
by ruckman101
Valiant effort. I'm not sure I've ever repaired anywhere. It gave me a sense of "there". Rats do have long tails. However, there was no mention of rats in lanval's tale. C+ seems a bit harsh, I'll go B+.


neal

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:33 am
by glasseye
[quote="Amskeptic"]
NEEDS WORK!
C+

:study: :salute: :cheers: :bootyshake:

Re: The Long Tail of the Rat

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:40 am
by Amskeptic
glasseye wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:NEEDS WORK!
:study: :salute: :cheers: :bootyshake:
Actually, so do I.
The Itinerary is officially over, and I am under water before I have even begun my winter layover.

Lanval, by the way, you *are* my Patron Saint.
Colin