Springfield Flyer.

[manta22]

That's great, Mike!

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[SPARKY]

KEEP on keep'n ON!   

[tauruck]

Got my head down, blinders on (the horse racing ones) and I won't stop.
There are issues but overcoming them is half the battle.

Did a bit of workshop prep on the press. Getting it ready to press on the
axle tubes for the rear end mod.
Tom Burkland's been getting me ready with long emails full of details and
great advice. I hope to have the job done in a week in spite of the flu.

My mate Ian is turning all my pencil drawings into Solid Works 3D examples.
Front spindles, hubs and other components now have a realistic look to them.

Busy week coming up.

[tauruck]

I got started on prepping the rear end for my "Sparky" conversion.

Step 1. Clean all the gunk.
Step 2. Clean even more gunk.
I'm using a combination of stuff including all the Klingspor abrasive products I have.
It should be shiny and spotless when I get to pressing on the axle tubes for welding.

[tauruck]

The hardest part was removing the OEM rubber bushings.
What a mess. I figured that heating the outer housings with the torch
would make it easier to press out the bushings. After five seconds the rubber
was on fire so I let it burn (for a while). The job took about 2 hours and the hardest
part was positioning the case on the press. A three handed job I think but eventually
PARTS POPPED!!!!.

Ian did some nice DXF drawings for the engineers at Honingcraft. Their normal work is
boring 35m housings for giant cylinders so machining a couple of 6" axle tubes should be a joke.

I went with EN19 from Logan at Odyssey Steel. His father Kevin and I played hockey together in the
70s and since he's in the same building we did a lot of catching up.

Great to see my old buddy but not all the news was good. My old team mates are almost all gone.
4 dead, 5 living overseas, one a hippie living in a hut on the beach and three of us still kinda normal.
I'm the crazy one. No hope for me. 

[tauruck]

Just waiting for the new axle tubes to be machined
so in the meantime I prepped the mounting plates.

Need some 16mm nuts to set the width.
Took pics with the tubes that were the wrong dimensions
just for effect.

[floydjer]

Looking good Mike...Then those plates mount the axle assembly rigidly to the frame rails??

[tauruck]

Jerry, I've got rod ends and other bits to add to the system.

I need to get the M16 left hand tap from my supplier when I go that way next week.

I have 10 ends that are lefties so we'll also have to machine locking nuts but luckily
I still have lots of hex bar.

I've figured out most of the lay out but we'll see how it goes when the time comes for
assembly.

I just hope I don't end up o the Friday Morning Joke section.

[tauruck]

Gary Walker from VDO was here on his bike about 30 minutes ago
to deliver my gauges.

I got a full set plus 2 manual boost gauges with tubing.
Oil Temp, pressure, water temp plus voltmeter.
They all came with adapter rings for the larger holes I'd cut
for the bigger gauges, connectors and sensors.

My thanks to him and all the staff at Torre Automotive.

[manta22]

Mike, it looks like VDO is instrumental in your progress on the car. 

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[tauruck]

Indeed. Thanks Neil.

Never got much done today, in fact I never did any work.
Boring!!!!.

Waiting for parts. All three sponsors are in one industrial area
and I want to make one trip. Saves on fuel and brain cells.

I'm thinking about a coating for the rear end and high temp paint
came to mind but Willie suggested powder coating. I don't know how hot
a diff gets at the speeds we want to do.
What should I do?.

[wobblywalrus]

Sometimes it is to our advantage to use a thin coat of light colored paint like grey or none at all.  It is easier to see if cracks in the casting are developing before they become serious.  It is hard to see small cracks under dark or thick paint. 

[floydjer]

Mike, it looks like VDO is instrumental in your progress on the car. 

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

That Neil is so 'engaging'..............

[tauruck]

At least he's not putting me under pressure.

Got an email to say my axle tubes are ready yesterday at 15h00.
Friday traffic is like Darlington on a bad night so we elected to go
collect parts Monday. Eaton/Aeroquip, Honingcraft and Aquajet Profiles
are all in the same general area, one round trip.

Today I'm going shopping for head gaskets and locating dowels.
Things need to be perfectly positioned when we start welding the sheet metal intake parts.
Until now I've just had the heads held on with two stock bolts.

Bosch needed a part no for the alternator so I chose one that fits a Mercedes SLK 55 AMG.
I know the car quite well and it's plum full of all the electronics you could think of so I figured
it should work on the long car.

Willie won coach of the year for the Supersport Wheel Chair Basketball series and his team won the final too
so he came around with a bottle of Scotch and we killed some brain cells. Not too many mind you.

Motor wise we need to position the oil pump, finish the exhaust, inlet manifold and it can go to Kyle for machining.
Busy times ahead.

[Stainless1]

Mikey, a little medicinal Scotch, Irish or (insert your favorite spirit here) is required every now and then to kill off the old and slow brain cells... the healthy fast ones will survive, although it may not seem like it in the morning