Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings Sequoia Forest 1&2
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:13 pm
On my way out of San Francisco, I drove past a shop that tugged at old California memories, mid-70's BMWs. I liked the fact that all of my customer's cars were daily drivers, yeah, with quality parts available too. Here are two survivors that reminded of my own:
Like now, my pride and joys were also my work trucks while I attended UCLA. The very same tool box that resides in Chloe once also resided in them. Note that the BMW 630CSi ushered in a rudimentary monitoring system that is now common in most all cars:
Anyways, back in the present, I had some serious mountain driving in my recent past, some Sierra Nevada Sequoia National Forest traverse in my present, and two Death Valley mountain traverses to come. Thought to myself, "let's look at those rear brakes now." Good idea. Found a lovely campsite outside of Porterville CA off CA 190 east:
Pretty moon above, crickets, golden light, and the main road about forty feet due down from my site:
After who knows how many miles prior to the 63,000 I have put on them, they were only 1/2 the way down, so I put the new shoes back under the rear bench seat, and bathed these suckers in GumOut:
Just like what I found on the fronts in Portland, grease had found its way to the shoes. The right rear outer seal lip had been caught by a sharp edge of the thrust washer fabricated long ago in Connecticut. This pulled the seal slightly out of the housing:
Sanded the thrust washer smooth, tapped the seal flush, and dabbed some Lanval Commemorative Vanagon Cylinder Head Sealant at 9 and 3 o'clock on the outside perimeter of the seal to help hold it (maybe) in place. I expect the inner lip to do all the work now:
The drum damage first noted in September 2012 has not changed. Notice the nice cross-hatch on the drum surface? Of course you do.
Painted the welds that hold the inner disc to the rims on each wheel. Maybe that will stop the rust-bleed after every rain event:
Crashed out at dusk, happy, quiet, moon, cool breeze, my tomorrow's ridiculous predicament not yet discerned . . .
In the morning, I took a fast walk up an overgrown trail and returned to touching up the wheel balance mauling of the rear wheels. While dabbing, I heard a Chevrolet Tahoe pull over down below, "Well change her, now! here! I can't take it any more!" Therapists, take heart, your future is secure.
What I did not know about now-today's ridiculous predicament, was that CA 190 just ends in the middle of nowhere in the high mountains. Here I am at 5,000 feet noticing that spark plug #2 (lower right) has a short circuit (see the shadow?):
I pulled over in a second when the engine went off-song. Did a compression test while I was there. 120/125/115/125, not bad for 5,000 feet. And I drove on up the hill to honest-to-God-who-knows-where . . .
Like now, my pride and joys were also my work trucks while I attended UCLA. The very same tool box that resides in Chloe once also resided in them. Note that the BMW 630CSi ushered in a rudimentary monitoring system that is now common in most all cars:
Anyways, back in the present, I had some serious mountain driving in my recent past, some Sierra Nevada Sequoia National Forest traverse in my present, and two Death Valley mountain traverses to come. Thought to myself, "let's look at those rear brakes now." Good idea. Found a lovely campsite outside of Porterville CA off CA 190 east:
Pretty moon above, crickets, golden light, and the main road about forty feet due down from my site:
After who knows how many miles prior to the 63,000 I have put on them, they were only 1/2 the way down, so I put the new shoes back under the rear bench seat, and bathed these suckers in GumOut:
Just like what I found on the fronts in Portland, grease had found its way to the shoes. The right rear outer seal lip had been caught by a sharp edge of the thrust washer fabricated long ago in Connecticut. This pulled the seal slightly out of the housing:
Sanded the thrust washer smooth, tapped the seal flush, and dabbed some Lanval Commemorative Vanagon Cylinder Head Sealant at 9 and 3 o'clock on the outside perimeter of the seal to help hold it (maybe) in place. I expect the inner lip to do all the work now:
The drum damage first noted in September 2012 has not changed. Notice the nice cross-hatch on the drum surface? Of course you do.
Painted the welds that hold the inner disc to the rims on each wheel. Maybe that will stop the rust-bleed after every rain event:
Crashed out at dusk, happy, quiet, moon, cool breeze, my tomorrow's ridiculous predicament not yet discerned . . .
In the morning, I took a fast walk up an overgrown trail and returned to touching up the wheel balance mauling of the rear wheels. While dabbing, I heard a Chevrolet Tahoe pull over down below, "Well change her, now! here! I can't take it any more!" Therapists, take heart, your future is secure.
What I did not know about now-today's ridiculous predicament, was that CA 190 just ends in the middle of nowhere in the high mountains. Here I am at 5,000 feet noticing that spark plug #2 (lower right) has a short circuit (see the shadow?):
I pulled over in a second when the engine went off-song. Did a compression test while I was there. 120/125/115/125, not bad for 5,000 feet. And I drove on up the hill to honest-to-God-who-knows-where . . .