Oklahoma 2014

[ClydesdaleKevin]

In camp and all set up.  Dog fence is all set up and the pups are VERY happy!

Got all that done yesterday.

Super windy today, so I fixed the rear window on the K5...bad safety switch that I bypassed...Rain-Xed the windows, and aside from other little chores called it a day.

Tomorrow, the workshop gets set up!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

A beautiful day today!  Going to finish my coffee and set up the workshop.  By the way, the Dogwidgits training collars work great!  Gotta love the button that vibrates both collars at once!  Thanks Frederic!  Perfect alternative for someone on a budget to the very expensive Dogtra collars.  Karli has only needed the vibrate to get in line...Paladin had to get the light zap twice, and so far just heeds the vibrate and listens up.

Kev

[Stripe]

Hehe, Nice, glad they are working out for you!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Workshop is set up, camp is sprayed with Sevin and watered in...LOTS of chiggers already, which I found out the hard way...and I'm calling it a day.

Its Karli's birthday tomorrow, so we'll be having a doggie birthday party with big grilled burgers for their cake!  Party hats and pics of course...lol!

Don't expect a lot of pics from here though.  We are back in Muskogee...land of no Version towers, horrible internet, and tornadoes.

Kev

[Stripe]

Are the Winds at least Whistling Down the Plains???

Happy Bark! Day Karli!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Our friends that franchised from us do the Georgia faire now.

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Karli loved her little doggie birthday party!  Not so crazy about the hat, but loved the 1/2 lb birthday burger!  Actually, she stole most of Sampson's too, so she ended up eating almost a pound of grilled ground beef...lol!  Still waiting for the effects of that...hopefully outside.

Barnabas and Paladin also had a blast...again, not crazy about the hats.  But loved the burgers!

Samson was cool with it all until Karli stole his burger, then stormed off in a huff.

Got her some toys...she loves squeaker toys...and gave Kong squeaker balls to all the pups.

Fun was had by all and many pics were taken!

Will post them as I can.  This internet connection is horrid!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

It was super rainy and windy here today, so I decided to drive down to Best Buy and see what kind of temporary solution I could come up with for phone and internet, since there aren't any Verizon towers anywhere near here.

Ended up coming home with a cheap T-Mobile pay as you go phone, and a T-Mobile pay as you go hot spot on the 4G network.

Guess what!  We have fast internet again and a phone that works! 

So that means I CAN post pictures of the puppy birthday party, coming up next!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So this was Karli's Birthday Burger!



As you can see, she approves!



She REALLY approves!



Here are 3 happy pups with their birthday hats on as best as they'd keep them on...lol!



Sampson got a couple of bites...



...Until Karli came over and stole the rest of his burger!



She sure liked her new toys!  Sharing?  Not so much...





Happy dogs!



And good times were had by all!

See how HUGE Paladin is getting?  He's not even 8 months old yet!

Kev

[M & J]

What a happy family day!

But wait?! Is that an ashtray and lighter I see?
What happened to vaping?

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Alas, the battery technology sucks for vaping so far, and all our batteries kept dying.  Went back to cigs.  Will have to check out batteries again soon to see if there are any that don't poop the bed so soon after buying them.  Went through a lot of brands, and they go kaput after a short while. 

Kev

[JDxeper]

Have you finished rockin and rollin? I see the front just past you!

[joanfenn]

The kids are so big.  Everyone looks so happy.   Give them a scratch for me.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Storm came and went.  No biggie.  Usually misses Muskogee historically.  Just goes around it because of geography.

Scratches given Joan!  They are getting big, but I don't think Karli will get much bigger.  She's a tiny little thing, but big on spirit and spunk!

Paladin is a moose though.  He's getting close to Barnabas in size, and he's not even quite 8 months old yet.

He's a love, but not big on strangers.  Gotta watch him.  He'll let them pet him, but if they get all in his face and baby talk him all gooey like, he doesn't like it and lunges at them.  We've taken to telling people to pet him all he wants, but don't get in his face.

With us, he's ALL about getting in our face, with big sloppy drool kisses!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Brrrrrrrr!!!  Crazy weather today!  Its 40 degrees right now, and the high today is only supposed to get to 44!  Low of 28 tonight!  We actually have the catalytic heater going right now.

Crazy weather!

Kev

[joanfenn]

Welcome to the club

[RedneckExpress]

Poor Sampson....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Its was DAMN cold today...in the low 40s and supposed to get down to 28 degrees tonight (what in the world?)...so instead of freezing my butt off in the woodshop, I decided to freeze my butt off working on our Blazer...lol!

First, I sat in the driver's seat and pondered how to get my wipers working.  I pulled the horn button, and then pulled the steering wheel.  Yep...its not JUST the wiper switch or lever...the signal switch is all cracked to heck where the lever goes into it.  And the "box" that holds all the works is shot to heck and broken all up near the ignition switch.

Went inside to warm up, got on the computer, and made some orders to LMC and Rock Auto.

The whole "box" thingy from Rock Auto, including all the hardware and bearings, was only 14 bucks!  They also had the best price on the washer pump motor.  Ordered!

Then to LMC.  Washer lever for tilt wheel, no cruise, no delay (had it, but going to bypass it).  Signal switch.  Two tools:  lock ring press and pivot pin remover (tired of jerry rigging it, and they were cheap).  Washer hose.  A grommet I need for the pump to reservoir.  Ordered!

So now its a waiting game to get my washer/wipers working.

Then drove down to a local "drive shaft shop."

The older gentleman who owns the place...and when I say older, I mean OLDER...had to be at LEAST in his 80s...probably closer to 90.

His shop is his garage.  I drove up and he was working on a driveshaft, doing the final prep to paint where he welded it to shorten it.

We talked a bit, and he asked me to remove my driveshaft so he could take a look at it, since his knees are pretty bad.  He had me measure how much output yoke showed first, then gave me a spare output yoke to shove in the hole so I wouldn't lose too much fluid from the transfer case.

I had 5 full inches showing from the yoke!

When I pulled it, it fell right out.  I had maybe 1/2 inch of splines engaged.  Geesh!

He whistled, and then we got to measuring out what I'd need.

He has a WHOLE bunch of driveshafts already done in rows and stacks, but nothing quite the 35 inches I'd need with the right ends and whatnot.

He told me a bit about himself.  "I started doing driveshafts back in 1962.  Got pretty good at it by 1972.  I don't have the equipment to balance them, but got pretty good at eyeballing them.  Haven't had one come back since about 1972..."

He had the perfect already done driveshaft with new U-joints and slip yoke the right size and slining, but it was 41 inches long.  He recommended he just shorten than one for me, instead of adding a splice to mine.  Would have been 60 bucks to lengthen mine if I insisted, but he prefers a one piece drive shaft.  So he made me a deal.  100 bucks for the 41 incher shortened to the length I need, but I had to give him my old one when I came to pick it up. 

Deal!

So I asked him...So, about a week or so?

He looked at me like I was crazy!  "A week?...heck...if I didn't have this one to finish for the kid who's supposed to pick it up pretty soon, I'd have it ready for you tonight!"

"I have a doctor's appointment in the morning...how's tomorrow afternoon sound?"

Sounds great to me!  I gave him 60 bucks down, and will give him the rest...and my old drive shaft...tomorrow.

Yeah, I know...I should have shelled out 300 bucks to take it to a reputable shop and have it balanced and all.  But this guy came highly recommended by all the local mechanics, who also confirmed that his driveshafts just don't come back as done wrong.  Ever.

Nice old guy and quite the character!  When I asked him how much slip yoke SHOULD stick out of the transfer case, he told me that normally it would be 3/4-1 inch.  But since its lifted and will articulate more, he recommended 1-1 1/2 inches.  We played it down the middle when measuring, so it will stick out 1 1/4 inches with the wheels on the ground.  That leaves about 4 inches of spline with the new slip yoke making contact at rest.  WAY better than what was in there!  1/2"  Geesh!

Once I get the driveshaft on there tomorrow, then I'll order the NP208 seals for the transfer case.  Both seals for between the transmission and transfer case (leaks in between), and the rear output shaft seal, and the bushing while I'm at it.  Front shaft doesn't leak, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Next week I'll be ordering a full spring lift at an incredible price, as well as the sway bar drop kit, and new polyurethane bushings for the sway bar.  Once I see how that goes with the steering, I'll check the wheel bearings and TREs for play and fix or replace as necessary.  Once that is all done, I'll adjust toe in.  If the steering still isn't right...as in not so floaty its scary...I'll buy the double steering stabilizer kit from the same good source.  And if that doesn't do it, then I'll just have to live with the float...lol!

Also going to center the steering when installing the kit.  Sucks having to do 5 point turns to get into a parking spot to the left, but not have any problems to the right.

Kev

[Stripe]

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you..

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Got the new drive shaft in...decided to go with 1.75 clearance because of the lift.  Replace the rear U-joint on the new driveshaft with a greaseable one, since it was suspect...but its all done!

Getting the ball joints and front wheel bearings inspected on Monday by a local shop, and replaced/adjusted as necessary.  Going to order a whole new 4" full spring lift for the Blazer this coming week as well, since it was done so poorly, and I want it done right!  Which means doing it myself the right way...lol!

Other than the necessary work on the K5, its catapult building, and more catapult building!  Worked all day on them, and will be busy for weeks!  The So Cal show is going VERY well!

Kev

[RedneckExpress]

Aye, I need to get some driveshaft work done on my truck as well, if nothing else, the carrier bearing vibrated badly at 35-40 mph and then again at anything above 55mph. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Lucky for me, the wheelbase is so short on a K5 there is no carrier bearing.

Got my parts in today from LMC Truck and RockAuto, and it turns out I forgot a part!  Apparently the wiper/high/low switch is an additional part to the signal switch!

Ordered it from O'Reilly's, so it will be here in the morning.  No biggie though!  I'll be too busy building catapults these next few days to do anything on the truck.

Worked on building catapults from 8am this morning until 6pm.  LOTS more to go!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

In the words of Officer Bar Brady, "Nothing to see here people!  Move it along!"

Nothing but hours and hours of catapult building!  Got all the parts to fix the wipers and washer on the K5, but no time to install them!

Busy, busy!

Kev

[jkilbert]

Happy Easter to you,Patti and the furry kids. I saw this and though of you.

http://www.511tactical.com/tactical-duty-kilt-134990.html

John

[Mr. T]

Do they have matching undie pants? 


Don