Adventioneering

Built a workbench. Red says it’s too high, but I say she’s too short. For my height, it’s about an inch too tall, bio-mechanically, but it would have been 4 cuts more of a pain to shorten the legs. Now I just need to drop a vice on and I can get that prop-shaft taken care of.

Photos.

Started putting the Jeep propshaft together after scoring a cool grease adapter set at Harbor Freight, but I realized that I’m dumb to try to do this before getting a vise because that just makes it 100x easier. I am not sure how people do this on the trail, I guess they just want it enough because they want to get their broken rig home.

So up next, time to build a sturdy workbench and drop a vice on it.

Photos

It’s “oil change weekend” this Saturday afternoon (3/6 starting around noon), so come one and come all, bring us your dirty oil and see the new shop. BYOChair.

I’ll be doing the engine and probably gearbox oil in the Maserati if anyone is interested in peeking under that car and seeing the somewhat bizarre service procedure.

Email/PM me for shop location if need be.

Got into the shop today, so it’s mostly about ferrying stuff out of storage right now, and kind of getting the place cleaned up and settled. We don’t have any furniture or anything like that so we’ve got to start being on the lookout.

By popular request, photos.

I’ve been slowly assembling the components to build a general-purpose I/O controller. I want something that is ruggedized but that I can also use for a multitude of projects. I’ve been struck by the lack of standardization regarding controllers among hobbiests and I think this is limiting the adoption for novel applications.

In any event I have selected the Arduino Mega platform. I am sure most of us have seen this before so I won’t go into it too much. I was a little disappointed in this sparkfun LCD, it arrived with some bad lines. I rubbed about half of them out and the others are just shot. I have spare LCDs thankfully. I do very much like their piggybacked serial interface module.

Steve gave me a tip that a friend of his has put together a very cool teardrop trailer, and look at what’s towing it, a TJ. I like the way he put it together, nearly all scratchbuilt, and it seems wider than I am used to seeing.

You can checkout the photos.

“Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to get on the back of one of those things?” Well, yes, actually I am sure she did at some point (Hi Mom!) but she’s pretty cool about these things. It’s been over a decade (yeesh!) since I can remember riding on a motorcycle for any extended riding. I will never forget the unmistakable sound of the bike coming down my street and pulling into my driveway to take me away. The exhilaration and undeniable ‘cool’ factor of putting on a helmet, hoping on the back of the bike, and holding on tight. The sound of a motorcycle, whether a throaty Harley or a high-pitched sport bike, always turns my head.

The wistful daydreams of riding miles and miles on curvy roads crept into my head some time last year, a time I cannot pinpoint exactly. I think it was around the time I knew we’d be moving back to the west coast. There is just something so romantic to me about the west coast and motorcycle riding. It’s such a good pairing, like peanut butter and chocolate… or sushi and Sapporo… or Sonny and Cher! You get the point. Whether it’s riding near the sea, on curvy roads through the mountains, or even long stretches on the flat lands in the desert, I could see myself on a bike in all these scenarios.

Once you say it out loud it’s true, so last fall I told everyone that I was interested in taking up motorcycling. A bold move for a girl who had never done more than gearing up and holding on. And away we go!

I’ve been looking off and on at bikes for months now. After looking at the Ducati Monster, the Buell Blast, the Honda Rebel, the Ninja 250, and a handful of others I have decided that the Rebel is the one for me. I soon realized I want a more upright stance, wider handlebars, and a lower seat height, so the Rebel and it’s Cruiser style fit all of my qualifications perfectly. I also read, and heard from you riders out there, that this is indeed a great starter bike.

Not to put the cart before the horse, I will be taking a rider safety course next month! I chose the 2-day weekend course. Today, in celebration and anticipation of the class I picked up a helmet and gloves. It just so happened I got the deal-of-the-day on an Arai Quantum-II helmet and some riding gloves. With a rider course discount and the sale helmet I saved $423 bucks! I have everything I need to complete the course for now.

Next up: shopping for real road-gear. I’ll be looking like a spaceman in no time!

Shook hands today on a lease for a 2000sqft workshop just outside of Redmond. More details to come, but now our projects will have a real home!

Spent a pleasant night camping out along the Index-Galena Rd, which is one of my favorite spots. This actually, I think, the first time I’ve ever gone camping by myself, and the first time I’ve spent a night in a tent in years in the Seattle area. Everything is so close, we tend to make day-trips of it all.

Photos are here.

Prior to some year, which is widely accepted to be 2004 although I have also heard 2002 so it may have varied by country/market, the power steering systems on TJs were filled with a MS5931 power steering fluid. This fluid is widely sold through the dealer network for a pretty penny, although non-MOPAR aftermarket fluids claiming to meet or exceed MS5931 are available from some automotive stores.

After 2003, the fluid from the factory was ATF+4 which has better temperature properties and is more widely available. There is a lot of information that says that you should not put ATF+4 into your pre-2004 TJ.

The truth is that you should not mix the fluids, but, if you are flushing the system or have lost most of the fluid, you can replace your fluid to ATF+4 thereby “upgrading” the vehicle to the 2004+ spec. I recommend this since ATF+4 is a lot easier to come by, and it’s what I intend to do when I swap out the steering box, hopefully this weekend.

If you swap to ATF+4 in your TJ, be sure to placard the vehicle so that future mechanics know which fluid to use.

This swap is authorized by Chrysler via TSB 19-005-03, reproduced here:

Steering – Power Steering Fluid Usage

NOTE :This bulletin supersedes owner’s and service manuals for the vehicles listed above that may state to use MS9933 in the power steering system, and that may state not to use automatic transmission fluid in the power steering system.