It's a German car, right ? It must be named Otto ...
The other day, backing out of the barn, I'd noticed a rubbing/scraping sound. I checked all around and didn't see any ice in the wheel-well -- the usual culprit for such sounds when the wheels are turned in the winter. More concerned with the antifreeze, I didn't do any more investigation on the rubbing sound. Sandy mentioned it, however, from her trip to Sudbury so I decided to look into it further.
I went into town yesterday, needing cash from the ATM as well as bananas for banana bread. The bananas, already mostly brown, were given to me as a "Christmas Gift" by the girl in the General Store. I stopped at the ATM only to find that it was permanently closed ... oh oh. The ATM in town, or at least the only one that I'd ever visited, was in someone's driveway in a heated outhouse-like affair. Going into Home Hardware, I got the screw extractor set that I was looking for (more on that later) and asked Steve about ATMs in town. He said that there was one at the Credit Union ... hmmm ... I didn't even know where the CU is ! Well, it's a small brick building with its side to the road so it's unnoticeable, just before you get to the LCBO. I stopped there and in the parking lot, turned extreme left and right, driving forward and backward, to try and find the source of the scraping. I was convinced that the snow tire was rubbing on plastic in the wheel well, but it wasn't. Still a mystery, I headed home.
Getting to Osprey Road, I decided to turn around and go to the ESS Narrows parking lot and do some more investigation. Well, what I found was that it's the non-BMW rims rubbing against the non-BMW Bilstein struts when turned at the extreme. It's not a good thing so we'll avoid max crank. It doesn't happen with the BMW rims which must be narrower, obviously, nor did it happen with the BMW struts with these snow rims.
While checking out the sound at the Credit Union, I noticed an antifreeze drip. I'm guessing that with the antifreeze completely topped up, in the extreme cold (14F yesterday), with the thermostat closed, the pressure is forcing a little bit out of that one connection. I'll check the level again this morning and see if there's any discernable drop in volume. Since the antifreeze doesn't evaporate as you drive, it only takes a tiny bit to show up under there. When I stopped again at the ESS Narrows parking lot there were no drips on the ground.
My major project of the day was coming up -- getting a bolt removed from the pressure washer.
Years ago, in Radnor, my pressure washer had stopped working properly and I'd tried to remove the pump, which is attached by 5 bolts. Those bolts have recessed hex heads, accessible with an Allen Wrench. Four of the bolts have the outer part of the head exposed, so if they are stubborn, you can grip them with vice grips. The fifth is recessed. Of course it's the fifth that gave me a problem at the time and the hex Allen was stripped. I'd completely forgotten that when I went to remove the pump a couple of days ago. I'd taken the entire washer into a repair shop and they returned it fixed.
Why was I trying to remove the pump ? Well, I'd consulted with the Parry Sound repair shop that is also a Honda ATC dealer and he said that to fix the pressure washer, bring in the pump so that he can send it to the shop in Toronto which will do a rebuild. Don't bring in the entire pressure washer, gas motor and all. It had stopped producing water under pressure and was leaking from one of the seals so it's definitely in need of repair or replacement. It's an expensive unit, so repair is probably the way to go.
I did some reading and found that the recommended way of removing such a bolt is with a screw extractor, which I'd never used before. You drill a hole into the screw/bolt and insert the extractor which turns into the hole as you back out the screw. I drilled the recommended hole but perhaps not deep enough, because when I then tried to use the extractor, it broke off in the hole. Rats. I even tried heat, using my blow torch.
Ok, I decided it was time for drastic action. I got out the drill and drilled a slot into the head. I figured that either I would get it open using a slot screwdriver or would end up drilling out the entire head and replacing the bolt. It's a fairly large bolt, about 3/8" across or slightly larger at the head. It's also hard metal. Drilling took some time. Ideally I'd be using a Dremel cutoff for this job, but my Dremel is in Florida. I guess that I need another Dremel. Anyway, after a long time I'd drilled out what seemed to be an adequate slot and got my big screwdriver with vice-grips attached, trying to budge the bolt, but no luck. The bolt head was wider than the screwdriver so I wasn't getting maximum leverage. I used the drill again and squared off the slot so that there would be no slippage, tried again but still no luck. Heading up to the garage, I looked for whatever my Dad had lying around that would provide a larger slot end and found two small pry bars about 12" long each. I figured that I'd use the grinder if necessary to shape one to the right size for the slot. As it turned out, the smaller of the two fit so with the vice-grips again I gave it a go ... and it turned. Yippee !! It sounds easy, but it took a lot of torque to move this bolt.
Removing the five bolts and pulling the pump end, into which three pistons insert, I could better see how the pressure washer actually works. I could also see the source of my problem -- at least one, perhaps two, disintegrated o-rings. I could probably do this Mr.. Fixit myself. I'll consider that but at the very least I can take it into the shop in Parry Sound -- along with two of the 4-wheeler wheels, by the way, for them to work on while we're gone for the winter. I need at least two new tires for the 4-wheeler, the nubs of which are pretty worn (rear wheels).
Late in the afternoon Sandy and I drove out to 522 in search of a Christmas tree. We mentally marked one and physically marked two, choosing one off a little bush road slightly past the dump. I'm going to go there today with the 4-wheeler and trailer to cut it down and haul it back. It's too big to put into the car although I suppose that it could hang out the back. Abby had a good time exploring during our jaunt and I'll have to figure out a way to bring her along if I take the ATC.
I was out walking on the lake yesterday, well at least in the shallow water of the cove. The ice appears to be about 1"-1.5" thick. It stayed cold yesterday so more would be accumulated, but is only 29F now and is supposed to go above freezing for the day so we won't get any more today. After this it's supposed to stay cold, so more and more ice will accumulate. There's no significant snow in the prediction, which will help with ice development. I fear that when everyone is here there won't be much if any snow, but if there is a lot of glassy ice, that will make up for it. The bush trails will also be quite accessible, with all the ponds frozen over. On the lake, we will essentially have a multi-acre ice rink for everyone to play on, which should be good fun. I can also do some flooding by dropping a sump pump in a hole and pumping water over the ice.
How large could that skating rink be ? Do you want to skate over to the Lodge ? 2 miles ? 3 miles ? I probably won't trust the ice that far but we'll see.
My signal strength is now 16 ... great. This will eventually post ...
Sara had her D&C&E yesterday and we saw some Facebook posts from her but don't have any other news.
Onward !
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