Train stuff. The Chicane is rebuilt on the 12x15, wired, tested, and ready for
ballast. The circuit breakers are installed and tested on the 12x15. Minutes
from the RF&P will be out to you guys in a little while.
Boat stuff: We're not on the Potomac headed to DC on the boat for the
fireworks. However, I have fired the engine for the first time in three years,
disposed of 35 gallons of bad gas. Most of the maintenance work is done. Down
to a very short list of work left. We will be on the water in July.
Today, we put electrical power on my younger son's 1960 Dodge in the garage. We:
Isolated a short on the horn circuit, we'll deal with that later. This was a
real honest to goodness fuse blowing nothing else is going to work until we fix
this dang short, short.
Rewired (correctly) the electrical emergency shut-off switchChecked / reset
rocker arm clearance on the valvesSpun the engine over and primed it with oil
(75 psi cold, that's a LOT). The oil pump was packed with Vasoline and sucked
up the prime like a champ. The dang drain plug (of all things) is leaking, NUTZ
Set the initial static timing on the distributor. Installed the spark plugs and
wires.Rewired the entire ignition circuit. Thankfully his wiring boo-boos
didn't fry anything. We did heat up the coil pretty good and swapped it out for
good measure.FWIW, he was trying to wire with pieces of three diagrams, from
three different manufacturers. There was no complete schematic for what is
installed on the car. We now have ignition! The MSD (multiple spark discharge)
controller throws a spark like a flame thrower. We could probably set pancake
syrup on fire with these spark plugs.
Fuel pump runs, we haven't put any fuel in the fuel cell, yet. That system
still needs to be leak checked.
Checked-out the electric cooling fan. WorksTotally unplanned, but FWIW, the
windshield wipers are working. Albeit the switch is wired backwards.
Built two temporary exhaust dump pipes off of the exhaust header
I know much of this will leave most of you guys cold. We accomplished more
today than we have all year. There is a short list before we try to fire this
engine. Tommy reminded me that I assembled it for him 17 years ago. It is still
super clean and spins over freely. I'm 99% confident that once we add fuel to
the equation, it is going to be making noise. A LOT of noise. Bob Buehler and
(both) Peters, if you're outside when we do this you will probably hear us.
Gilly
-----Original Message-----
From: John Crockett <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: rc3r@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <rc3r@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Jul 3, 2020 1:16 pm
Subject: [rc3r] Happy 4th
Hope everyone has a great and safe Independence Day celebration.
John
