What are you doing today? [Part II]

[Matt]

It's my boys 16th birthday, so we're doing family stuff.

 

[TollKeeper]

Time to explain the birds and the bees

 

[flyboy2610]

Time to write a bigger check to the auto insurance company.

 

[BrianF]

My wife is off to the big city as a horse requires diagnostics from the university vet. So my youngest and I put a few more miles on the sleds in the powder, which is knee high at the lowest. Heavy sleds, deep powder and not much paddle equals keep on the throttle!! Had a blast!

 

[Matt]

Time to explain the birds and the bees

That's what porn is for!

Time to write a bigger check to the auto insurance company.

He only has his temps and our insurance company already let us know it's not much of an increase for us until he gets his own car.

 

[TollKeeper]

UPDATE!

The event had been causing me some anxiety.. Ya know.. is he alive or dead?

My wife did some sleuthing today.. And apparently, this is NOT confirmed, but the guy is alive.

My wife contacted the hospital, who told her to call the Adams County Sheriff, who told her someone would call her back. They called back a short while later and said they couldnt confirm whether or not he was alive or dead, but he could say that if he was dead, a detective would have already called me, as they would have been investigating it as a homicide.

Sigh of relief!

Update #2....

Just got contacted by the Adams County Sheriff, and they indicated that if I wanted any more info, that I would need to call the Adams County Coroner... Only one reason to call him.

 

[flyboy2610]

So sorry to hear that, TollKeeper. You did what you could, though, which is more than most would.

 

[BrianF]

Got my new Ghost all tuned up and the old one got some loving as well. Tomorrow the other one needs more work. Never ends, lol!!

Had a great ride today, then finished it off with homemade burgers on the Traeger and a movie with the kids.

 

[littleblazer]

First time I've taken a breath since before Christmas... did multiple 72 hour weeks... finally settled down and fiddled with the turntable. Got a new cartridge/headshell and stylus to mess with based on reccomendations from friends. Spun up some DIO to test how it sounds. (My cousin got me a true flea market find NM first pressing of holy diver and God damn does that album sound mint. I swear the owner played it once and put it away.) So then I tossed on my baby... several years ago I aquired a Beatles in mono boxset. The one where they did a full analog reproduction of the mono albums from the original mixes... I tossed on Revolver and I have to say my mind was quite literally blown with how good that sounded. I grew up with CDs and the stereo version. First time I heard the mono version I thought the mix sounded better... and this just blew my mind... I really just don't understand how something that crisp could be produced by a piece of metal scraping against a piece of plastic. A nice release before I go back to the grind tomorrow... been a wild couple weeks.

 

[richphotos]

Getting a bumper cover prepped to be put on hopefully this weekend.
Got into a fender bender around Christmas and finally got around to going to the upull yard and you can really tell we had a couple big snow storms recently because EVERY trailblazer there was missing its bumper cover, impact bar, grill ect.
So I am starting to leave, bummed out and in the corner of my eye I see a white LS and it still has the bumper. What a turn of luck, because ours is also white so its a lot less work.
Took it home and cleaned it up and its just about perfect.

 

[TJBaker57]

Getting a bumper cover prepped to be put on hopefully this weekend.
Got into a fender bender around Christmas and finally got around to going to the upull yard and you can really tell we had a couple big snow storms recently because EVERY trailblazer there was missing its bumper cover, impact bar, grill ect.
So I am starting to leave, bummed out and in the corner of my eye I see a white LS and it still has the bumper. What a turn of luck, because ours is also white so its a lot less work.
Took it home and cleaned it up and its just about perfect.

After my deer collision of a couple years ago I went through the same search for front grille and related parts. Mine is also Summit White and I grabbed a grey bumper cover first but later on another trip found a good white one. Both needed one or both mounts reattached but that is simple enough. I still have the gray one in the shop and asked the yard if I could just "donate" it back someday so someone else may make use of it instead of me just tossing it in the local landfill.


The hardest part for me to find intact was the header panel. Even ones that came into the yard intact were then broken by some inconsiderate fool ripping out the headlamps, breaking the header panel in the process.

 

[richphotos]

After my deer collision of a couple years ago I went through the same search for front grille and related parts. Mine is also Summit White and I grabbed a grey bumper cover first but later on another trip found a good white one. Both needed one or both mounts reattached but that is simple enough. I still have the gray one in the shop and asked the yard if I could just "donate" it back someday so someone else may make use of it instead of me just tossing it in the local landfill.


The hardest part for me to find intact was the header panel. Even ones that came into the yard intact were then broken by some inconsiderate fool ripping out the headlamps, breaking the header panel in the process.

Luckily the impact bar and bumper cover took majority of the damage, core support is slightly pushed in right in the middle from a trailer hitch but ill just pull that out with a ratchet strap and tree.
I do not think there is any damage to the header panel thankfully because I was running into the same problem you were.
Every one of them was broken and I think it was just from people removing other parts carelessly.

Searching for a color that is close to the white is extremely hard and im glad you also found a white one.
My next quest is to find a smoothed white bumper, ive currently have the 2 tone gray/white with the grained covers and I absolutely hate it.
Ultimately would like to find one from an 07+

 

[TollKeeper]

Looks like they got a couple white ones down in Ghetto town.. I mean Chicago.

2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer Used Auto Parts | Rockford

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2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer used auto parts available. Get a great deal on parts for your 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer at LKQ Pick Your Part - Rockford

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[northcreek]

Riding the recliner for three days....
Vaxed to the max and kicked in the ass....

 

[Matt]

In a meeting/training thing for a new system and I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a fork.

 

[Mooseman]

Just what I was anticipating since the beginning of winter. Finally going for my first sled ride of the season. Charged up my tablet, Bluetooth helmet communicator, changed the battery in my Chubby Buttons media controller, fill a Thermos full of coffee, get dressed, get the sled, stick on my new trail permit and license sticker, start my GPS app and put the tablet in the holder, hop on, turn on the tunes and go. I'm about 10 minutes into my ride when the display is flashing the money light (yes, my sled has one) and code 46. Stop and search on the phone: bad voltage to the injection system. That usually means the battery isn't charging. Head back right away and get to my driveway, shit it down, try to restart it and, click. She's dead Jim. I'm fearing the stator is cooked, which is a fairly expensive part (>$400) and a real PITA of a job, probably worse than the head.

So rip the front apart, put the battery on the charger and start doing tests. Stator is within specs and not shorted to ground. Running it without the voltage regulator produced >35VDC on each leg. Wiring is good from battery to regulator so conclude the regulator is bad. Although the battery seems good, it's of an unknown age and an unknown brand so in case it's was responsible for killing the regulator, decided to get a new Yuasa sealed battery.

Get changed back into my normal clothes and head to Royal Distributing after calling them to confirm they have them and put aside for me. While heading there, realize I forgot my wallet in my sledding suit . Turn around and head back. That's a 30 minute drive one way. There's 2 hours of my life gone. $90 for the aftermarket regulator (OEM was $406!) and the battery $149. Good thing was that they had a promo where they give a gift card with 25% of the purchase price so a nice $62.50 back.

It's dark by the time I get home and the snow is now flying . Install them, do a quick test run and I get a good 14v+. Put everything back together and she's ready for tomorrow after tonight's storm (10-15cm of snow expected).

First pic is of the running test. You can see the regulator at the bottom of the pic.


And took apart the old one. Yeah, water got in. Surprised it worked at all. It was potted but some weird hard type, like concrete. It was dry around it under the hood so this was long term damage.



Now let the snow fly!

 

[Mooseman]

Guess what I'm doing?


@BrianF , found this beauty in our clubhouse as a decoration. I guess it's related to your fleet?

 

[BrianF]

Hell yes!! Glad you are getting those miles on. Looks like a Rampage!! Some shared architecture, including the 437cc engine. IIR its points and a different carb but lots of commonality. I found a couple for sale here and there but distance played into my decision.

I have one Ghost torn down in the heated shop right now. Secondary clutch has a wobbly fixed sheave that I attempted to fix. Had to tear the reverse box and chaincase down. The secondary was definitely working on reduced functionality. I found that at this time its not worth it to fix the sheave, I swap the whole thing out later. Issue now is realigning the chaincase and jackshaft seal plate. Its a pain in the ass but its got to be done.

I got a few dayhifts left so I want it done so all 4 machines are on the trail at once.

 

[BrianF]

I figured out the jackshaft alignment issue, was not hard in the end. I got the chaincase and reverse box mounted.... and then I realized that I forgot a spring in the reverse box. Then realized that the movable sheave doesn't fit on the shaft because the reverse box needs to be removed, it won't clear the exhaust and a cylinder. I removed the steering shaft.... still no dice.h Oh well, live and learn.

 

[TollKeeper]

Gave all my trucks a oil change.

I certainly don't like the placement of the oil filter on the v8, but what you gonna do?

Went to grease the suspension components and found both my upper ball joints boots missing. Not ripped, not leaking, GONE. These only have about 9000 miles on them Detroit Axle.

But have to wait until I can find, and afford, the front Bilstein struts so I can just do it all in one shot.

Need to get the envoy front end up in the air so I can check all the other Detroit Axle parts I put on.

 

[Matt]

Cooking. Knocked out 5.5 lbs of chicken breasts in the air fryer for salads. Just got started on tomato relish, going to bottle (or can?) 2 gallons of pie and thinking about making ANZAC biscuits this afternoon.

 

[BrianF]

Got the secondary all cleaned up, well the moving parts and belt surfaces. I have it all together while waiting on the RTV to cure. But, seeing as I can't leave anything alone, I might rip it all down again as having the loose fixed sheave bugs me more than I thought.

But, that secondary needed one hell of a service. The movable sheave was hanging up in places and now it works like butter.

 

[TollKeeper]

Making sure all my vehicles are serviced up.. Looking at the miles, etc..

My Pontiac - I bought 3/14/2009 miles with 56028. It now has 132173 miles. Thats 76145 miles in 14 years, or 5438 miles a year average. However, I had it emissioned back 2/21/2021 with 128865 miles. Thats 3308 miles in 2 years, or 1654 miles a year!

My GMC - I bought 9/8/2010 with 89921 miles. It now has 212074 miles. Thats 122153 in 12.5 years, or 9772 miles average a year. Had it emissioned on 2/4/2021 at 198321 miles, or 13753 miles in 2 years. I thought I owned this truck longer than that.. But I guess I was wrong.

My Saab - I bought on 4/3/2022 with 160911 miles. It now has 167012 miles. thats 6101 miles in 8 months.

Even though the wives Aztek doesnt get driven much, I feel I need to get her a newer car.. With those type of miles, no way I could justify a new car.

 

[BrianF]

Not much on the go here. Hauled the skid steer out to my acreage to clear the driveway and yard.... got the truck and trailer stuck exiting the main road as the grader left a layer of semi packed snow at the approach. Then spent a couple hours digging the yard out. Got she skid steer nice and stuck a few times but in the end all was well.

Then worked on my sled. So the big gasket sealing rhe chain case to the frame is leaking, bad enough I need to fix it but not bad enough I'm willing to rip in further. I went to take it for a shakedown and found it stalling. Turns out the original primer bit the dust. Emptied the fuel line so the carb ran dry but dumped the fuel into the engine bay and under the seat. So thats on the list.

An old timer told me today, sleds are like helicopters. Every hour you ride is two hours in the shop. Sems accurate.

 

[Mooseman]

An old timer told me today, sleds are like helicopters. Every hour you ride is two hours in the shop. Sems accurate.

Yep, that sounds about right but modern sleds are better, albeit more complicated when they do break.

Went for a quick ride on the trails. A bit rough as we need more snow for proper grooming but still enjoyed myself. We do have some snow coming for tomorrow so that should help however a number of trails are closed as we haven't been getting the cold needed to freeze water crossings and swamps.

 

[TollKeeper]

Trying to make a new technical help question.. and the forums are screwed up for me..

Anyone else having a forum issue? Mainly on the forums link, and some sub-forums. I am just getting a white page with nothing on it.

Edit: Just tried it on another browser, same problem..

 

[azswiss]

Mainly on the forums link, and some sub-forums. I am just getting a white page with nothing on it.

Seeing the same problems. Started yesterday.

 

[Mooseman]

Posted a support announcement message about it and contacted @Jman423

 

[BrianF]

We got some cold weather coming after the rain and sleet tomorrow. The classic pinko news channel blames climate change for "piercing cold" we got coming.... we are going to hit -25 to -27 for a couple of nights before we settle to our normal -20c...... oh thats real piercing alright. I put the sleds in the coveral for the rain but frankly, I tuned them fat so they will run great in the cold.

The girls and I put some trail miles on before ending the day with some ribs and roast on the Traeger. The ribs were on point. Best I ever made, the smoke was good and they were fall off the bone and juicy.

 

[Blckshdw]

we are going to hit -25 to -27 for a couple of nights before we settle to our normal -20c...... oh thats real piercing alright.

I've been out of the midwest for 20 years now, if I was subjected to that kinda weather at this point, I would probably die in 5 minutes, even if I was bundled up head to toe

When I got home from work, decided to put in some work on this tall tree right behind the house. It grows fairly quickly, and every summer I have to trim back branches from growing over the patio roof, as well as throwing shade on the solar panels in the morning hours.

After hurricane Ian, there were some thicker branches that broke off, but got hung up in the canopy. Only way to get them down was to cut the supporting branches, which needed to be done anyway, so it was less of a giant wind sail. This one is really the only threat to fall onto the house and damage it. Forgot to take a before pic, but looking at the 2nd pic, it would fill the frame from side to side when it was full of leaves. The recent cold snaps made it drop all it's leaves again, so much easier to deal with.




Got as much cut down as I could reach with my ladder and electric pole saw, before I ran out of daylight. Got a pretty good pile of branches, will start cutting those down to size after work tomorrow, and drag those out to the front for the yard waste guys to take on Friday.

 

[Mooseman]

Maybe the white pages we were seeing was for the snow we're getting right now. Calling for 20-25cm by tomorrow. That'll make the trails all nice!

 

[TJBaker57]

Got as much cut down as I could reach with my ladder and electric pole saw, before I ran out of daylight.

Brings back memories of some 45 years ago when I was a "tree man" by profession.

 

[Blckshdw]

Yesterday, after a quick run to the grocery store after work, was back in the yard to break down the branches for disposal. Got the majority of them done before running out of daylight again, everything in that massive pile cut up and hauled to the front. Still have smaller stuff scattered in the back, and some larger branches that fell on the other side of one of my fences where the county has some utility boxes. I'll get my ladder over the fence to retrieve those later.



I guess that's the trade off I have to live with. Being able to do yard work until almost 8pm in the summer, vs the sweltering temps all day that pretty much force you to do anything 1st thing in the morning, or last part of the day.

 

[TollKeeper]

Got both the Aztek and Envoy Emissioned.. And the passed!@

 

[Sparky]

Getting adjusted again to having a newborn in the house, and not having a solid night's sleep. I'm dragging pretty good today.

I still have my brother-in-law's Element in the garage. Got the darn rear struts finished, but the thing decided to have its idle control valve crap out (likely just full of carbon build-up) so it won't run right, and I found the cruise control cable attachment on the throttle body had been jerry-rigged by the previous owner due to a broken plastic part on the throttle body itself, and the gasket was torn, AND a new throttle body (if it exists) is likely around 600 bucks, and it is a common failure on these things...

Part of me just wants to push it out of the garage and light it on fire. Gee whiz, I don't know what happened to your car man...

At least I found a Dorman throttle body repair kit for this failure mode, a heck of a lot cheaper than an entire throttle body. It arrived today, so I guess I'm rebuilding that soon.

 

[BrianF]

Just surviving the "piercing cold" out this way. Worst ambient we saw was -24c but we did have some decent wind over the weekend that had a -36 windchill. Still, absolutely nothing out of the ordinarily. -16 today as a high and supposed tondip to -29 for Wednesday and then single digits for the weekend. Oh the horror.

Saturday we rolled up to the oil city, home of the lifted F350 with oversize wheels, Lloydminster to watch my girls last basketball tournament. They got first place but their last game they had to earn that one.

So now I just plug away at work until the weekend when I'll put some miles on the sleds. Oh the horror.

 

[flyboy2610]

Went to work, put up with the usual stupidity. Only 5 years, 9 months to go. If I can last that long.

 

[Sparky]

Got like 2 hours of sleep Monday night so I ended up taking Tuesday off work because I was not functional. I did find out that Dorman makes a replacement part for busted Honda 4 cylinder cable driven throttle bodies. Listed as only for early 2000s Accord but it is exactly the same on the Element. It took only 10 minutes to fix, and that was while sleep deprived. Now just to get those darn stuck JIS philips look-alike screws off the idle air control valve to clean that. But I took a nap yesterday afternoon. It can wait.

 

[Blckshdw]

Was only planning to measure my ladder up against the tree out back to see if I could reach those tip top branches easily, and make sure the ladder felt stable at that height. Was looking into getting one of those V shaped ladder stabilizers for poles/corners, but there happened to be a thick branch that ran horizontally just above the walkway. Got a bunch of stuff cut down, so as it starts growing back this summer it won't be so high, or as unruly as it tends to be by the end of the season. Left a couple of branches that grow along the walkway, as that will get shaded.



Quite thankful for the adjustability of the ladder, having that hinge made it really easy to lift one side, while the other side was on the ground, and get it over the fence into the weeds behind the pumping station. Was able to make quick work of all the branches that fell on that side, and toss them back into my yard.



In my haste to go ahead and get this done, rather than wait until Thursday like I planned, I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt, so naturally I've got some scrapes and small cuts to show for my efforts. Gotta love that, but at least I've got everything piled up, so all I need to do us cut them down to size Thursday and haul them out front.

 

[flyboy2610]

I have one of those ladders. Love it!