James good to hear you and friends were safe and we were all lucky because if the storm hit land it would have been really bad.
I dont know why some people have a death wish and have to go out into storm waves and then need someone to come in after them.
I heard here in NC they were not going out to rescue people and put themselves at risk when they had more than enough time to get the hell out.

I was going to say the same about the nail as it looked like they stitched to keep it in place.
I am guessing the doctor keep putting off pulling the stitches as he knows you and you would be using that hand / finger

I like what you did to the door. Maybe I should hire you to replace the door to my garage? It was rotten and patched when we moved in and it has not gotten any better and needs to be replaced.
If it was the wife's "she shead" it would have been replaced when we moved in, she hold the money, but my garage will wait till it falls off like your did
I really need to look into it and a few other things outside now that it is cooling off.

I am guessing Tom still has work to do to finish off the garage and if that is done he has more than enough projects (rust buckets but dont tell him I said that LOL) to work on without having that cooker.
Heck there has to be one for sale somewhere that you dont have to take all this time to build one. Unless you have everything to make it your self without help from others other than help drink your beer

Yes the Crown Vic is a nice cruiser for trips, the seat bottom could be a little softer but you have to stop for gas like 300 to 350 miles its good to get out and stretch.
I do like that it pull about 25 MPG with the cruise set at 70 MPH and that shocks me for a car that size with a 4.6 motor.
I know Mary likes it as she is asleep in no time

Well my son is now a homeowner as of last Thursday but could not move in till think Saturday as they did not have beds to sleep on, they bought them after the signing.
When I got back from our trip I seen a lot of grass clumps in the drive but my grass was not cut so think my son grabbed my tractor to cut his lawn.
Before I went away I been looking on FB marketplace for a lawn tractor for him and told him so. Well he found one in Clayton listed for $250 a Craftsman model 917 (LT1000) 42" 18hp Koler command motor. New tires, battery, oil changed been parked outside under a pine tree and no key. Talked it over with him and said lets look at it and see. Yesterday rented a Uhaul and headed on over, they brushed off the pine needles and blew out the times, I had a air tank just in case.
We tried to turn the motor over by hand and it would not move. Seller used a jump pack and it still did not move but what movement I seen I did not think the motor was frozen and if so we could walk.

Seller said the wife wanted it gone, I said we could make that happen and drop the price to $150 so we figured what the hell and loaded it up.
The parking brake did not work, the trans we hope is stuck out of gear, loke of things need lube and worked to free up but not really anything bad.
I hauled it down to Hope Mills rolled it off into his garage and started to look it over better. Som pulled the 42" deck, he siad my 60" was too big to fit thru his gates LOL.
At first the blades were hard to turn but they did turn, hope after some lube they will turn better if not I seen deck rebuild kits for under a $100 that has all the pullies with bearings, spindles, belt and blades.

Once the deck was off, belt was rusted to the motor pulley the motor could be turned by hand
We pulled the gas tank to get to the IGN switch, I found a new replacement for under $20 with key he will have to buy.
We checked the battery, ground wire is missing a bolt, and even looking dirty had 12.4 volts, dont know how old it is?
Son dose not have a battery charger (yet) I have to check the ones I have to ser what one I want to give him as I got 2 large shop type one.

If he can get the tractor running and moving I told him I would buy the deck parts if it needed them, Oh I also bought the tractor for him.
Think the hardest part to find will be the head light Lense as it is yellow and cracked. I know once he gets it cleaned up and looking better it will be a nice machine.
Dave ----

 

Congrats to your son on the new house and mower. Let the endless list of repairs begin.

 

Yeah James he stitched it in place, he said to protect the finger, but I thought it's disconnected so that means dead and won't grow any more? I know I was confused on the day it happened, because he was making all that effort to stitch it in place. I tried to gently "guide" him saying "you're gonna stitch the nail in place? I mean isn't it going to come off anyway?" And he said "well keeping it in place protects the end of the finger, but yes it will eventually come off". So what does that exactly mean?! I kinda took it as holding it in place while the fingertip fracture underneath heals, and then take it off later. But now that it looks like it is growing I am even more confused. I guess I'll find out tomorrow

Dave congratulations to your son, and hey that mower is a nice house-warming gift, once all fixed up and running. Very glad the motor wasn't locked up, that was good luck I guess that it was frozen in place by the belt being rusted to the pulley.

Don't compliment me too much on the shop door, I did not tackle any of the rot around the door frame. I figure save that for another day! In fact I have a lot to replace, all the wood on the back is rotting, and about half the trim is rotting. That's just what I can see, Lord only knows what's behind it after you pull the pieces off.

Funny you mentioned finding one for sale locally, Sue commented at least twice "there's one on marketplace right now for $400...". Tom says "nope nope nope we're going to build our own so we know it's done right!". Why?! By the way Tom is paying for everything out of pocket, and then will "take it off his bill" as the neighbor cuts his grass for him. I say at $60 every 2 weeks it'll take a couple of years to pay it off, and trust me the guy does not do a good job on his lawn. But I'm just here to help!

I agree 25mpg at 70 for a fullsize car is excellent.

 

In my very uneducated but having things like this happen before opinion:

He left the nail on to protect the nail bed. And also to protect the finger from getting banged up. What will happen is the current nail will grow some and then start to die while it's growing a new nail from underneath. Eventually the new nail will push the old nail off. The old nail will turn several colors and eventually black. As the new nail grows in it will start putting pressure on the dead nail and force it off. Leaving you with a tender new nail. What you need to watch out for as the new nail grows in, if it isn't allowed to properly form it could start growing/shifting to the point that it creates an ingrown nail. Then the Dr will have to trim it to keep it growing straight. And believe me they don't trim it longways, they trim it vertically. It sucks.

Hopefully it heals quickly and properly. But it does take some time.

I'll take my $20 co-pay for my consultation. Venmo or paypal is fine.

 

That does make more sense. It already feels like an ingrown nail, but I think thats just from having 4 stitches linked to the same point on my finger and it keeps tugging there.
How about instead of a copay I'll buy you a beer and a burger or plate of BBQ next time we get together?

 

Thanks guys on my son's home.
When I dropped the tractor off and did a little checking it out he was already complaining about the jobs needing to be done, I said welcome to home ownership
If he gets his act together today, his only day off, I will grab some of my extra tools he can use and head on down to give him a hand with things and if have time clean up the tractor.
If he gets the IGN switch in today I can install it and see if it will fire up.

On the nail I had a problem with a big toe nail and the doctor used side cutters to cut off a big chunk and yank what was stuck then used a Dremel with a sanding drum to "grind" back more of the nail
Could not wear a sock for a few days and weeks with a shoe without it hurting, still not 100% right and its been all most a year.

Plans changed for my son. Wife may need help taking 1 of our dogs to the vet as he has a ear infection and the medicine we have been giving him dose not seem to be working.
Thing is they dont open till 8am and close at 1pm and may not have a opening to sneak him in. We dont want him hurting over the weekend if we can help it.
Kids what you going to do
Dave ----

 

Just getting together at some point would be payment enough.

Welcome indeed. With rent and mortgages being almost the same prices now I sometimes think it would be better to rent. But it is nice to have equity in something and even though repairs are costly and time consuming there is a certain amount of pride in home ownership.

 

I just got back from having my stitches removed. It was not the same doctor who put them in, it was a young lady (maybe not even a doctor, as I think you don't need to be an MD to remove stitches?). I asked her what will happen to my nail, she said either it will come off on it's own, or the new nail will grow underneath it and push it off. So either way it's only on my finger temporarily. In that case, I wondered why he bothered to save it and stitch it on, she said most likely it was to help control the bleeding underneath. But it looks better now and only took her 3 minutes to do the job, I was in and out and on my way before I even finished half of my cup of coffee.

My disc brake upgrade boxes came in on Tuesday, I just opened them for the first time last night. Looks great I am excited to install this. I thought I had to reuse my original hubs, but the rotors are one-piece and I don't reuse anything from my drum system. That was a nice surprise.


It even came with bearings and seals, which was not listed in the ebay listing, so I had gone to Autozone and purchased bearings & seals. I will return the ones I bought afterwards assuming that everything goes as planned.

Comes with detailed instructions, which of course I will throw away without reading.

One annoyance is the master cylinder, I wanted the low profile aluminum master. It's advertised as "3/8" shorter and 3/4" lower. For optimum fit!" It was not listed as part of the kit so I messaged the guy beforehand saying I wanted that instead, if there was an additional charge (such as there was when I upgraded to the drilled & slotted rotors) I would be willing to pay it. He replied "taken care of". But when I opened everything up, I see a regular standard size cast iron master.



Not the clearest detailed pic, but you can kinda see why I need the low profile. I have the "export brace" which will block the top of the master once you push it outwards with a vacuum booster.

I messaged him again today asking and he said "well box it up and send it back and we will send you the aluminum low profile one". So I'm supposed to wait another week I guess? I don't know if that is something I can find locally.

 

I did not know they made a low-profile master?
With that said I dont see why you could not get one local as long as you know what it fits, do you know what it fits?

You said Monday Baily was coming to help is that still on and what time as I may come by and supervise you guys
Dave ----

 

I don't know that it's a factory part from a different vehicle, and when I do a google search it keeps bringing back to Force10 brakes which is the seller I got the kit from. So maybe they commissioned to have it made specifically for retro use?

I am trying to change the brake work day to Tuesday afternoon around 1pm or so. But Bailey didn't respond yet as to whether that day & time worked for him. The reason I want to push it out a day, I ordered the low profile master and it (hopefully) arrives by Tuesday.

Would be great for you to come by and lend some expertise. Bring a chair!

 

He can do the under dash and mount the booster so all that has to be done is bench bleed the master when it comes in and then bleed the system.
On Tues I have to take Mary to Raleigh for an injection for 1pm. Guess I could come in the morning, take Mary and come back.
Wed 8am I have my eye injection so cant bend over or strain for the day.
So let me know what is going on so I know what day to supervise

I spent the day at my son's house working on the lawn tractor, he had to leave for work at 1:30pm.
First hit Agri for parts then HF for a cheap pressure washer, $90, and a battery charger as the battery was low when he tried to crank it.
First was to pull the motor covers to clean out any mouse home, was not bad then get everything outside and wash it so I did not catch something

Gave everything a quick spray with lube as things were stiff from not being used. Son installed a new IGN switch but it still would not crank with the key? I put off looking at it till much later.
I did spray starting fluid just to make sure it popped off and it did but something told me to check the carb. Damn throttle & choke were frozen so I pulled it to check why.
Old gas leaked into it and gummed it up so pulled it apart for as good carb spraying and then lube and it came free.
Ripped a gasket so had to make one from carb board but should be good. I just dont know if the bowl rubber gasket will leak or not as it was pretty hard.
The fuel hose and breather hose were the wrong size so could not get the fuel system hooked up to test my carb cleaning skills

It was time to look into why no cranking. Thing was I was not getting power to the carb anti back fire valve so time to look at the IGN switch.
When pulling it from the dash I could hear the carb valve clicking so I knew I was on to something. Son said when he changed the switch the power lug in the plug was not good.
When pulled I seen what he said and just bent it some and all was good and even cranked
Poured a little gas down carb and she ran pretty good, wished I could have run it more but hard to pour from a 5 gallon can.

We still dont know if it moves yet and we know the brakes dont work so I will get the right size hose and head on down tomorrow and get the fuel system together and hopefully have it run so I can see if it moves.
Also going to pull a rear wheel to check the brakes, hope it just needs adjusting.
Dave ----

 

You made a lot of progress on the mower, will be earning it's keep in the yard soon I'm sure. Not cranking over with the key, I was going to guess bad grounding, but it sounds like you got it and it was a loose connector. You might get lucky on the float bowl gasket not leaking, we'll see!

Bailey is coming on Tuesday at 1pm, that is the day that the master cylinder is supposed to arrive.

I'm planning to start on the Mustang on Monday around 1pm, because I wanted to get as much done myself before Tuesday. If your Tuesday is already spoken for, and you don't mind, then come by tomorrow, for sure I'll at least be pulling the drums and hubs off and getting the brake lines taken care of. If they are rusted and stripped then I'll make new ones.

I can't stop being clumsy; yesterday slammed my finger in the truck door. Not the same finger, not even the same hand, and not bad enough to need medical attention, but it sure cut into it and bled for a while, that fingernail starting to turn a little purple today.

 

I will stop by on Monday to lend a hand. Dont know how late you want to work till but I can see getting the rotors / hubs and calipers mounted and maybe the lines too.
This way just the under dash work and booster / master mounted and bleed the system.
If starting at 1pm I may swing by after Mary if she is not hurting too much.

Well good news bad news on the tractor.
Got the right size fuel line and the fuel system installed, no leaks, and got the motor running, carb needs to be dialed in but it dose run.
When I pulled the rear wheel to look into the brake I found no square key in the slots for both rear wheels so that is why it would not move and brakes not work ............. or is it????
When under I seen the drive belt was missing a chunk and had cracks. Ran out to Tractor Supply, with a wheel to check key way size. Good thing as it was too big so did exchange and got the right size.

Cleaned and lubed the brake parts and in adjusting I may have messed something up.
I installed the new belt, matched up to the old and right size, but when installed it is too tight. Also when doing the brake the pedal get funky and think maybe why the belt is to tight and yes it is run right.
Get the tractor on the ground, started right up but I cant get it into any gear
I get off and I cant push it even if I pull the rod on the back so you can push it
Not getting into gear I can see as the belt is too tight but I should be able to push it when you pull the rod. May John Deere is the same way, pull a rod so you can push it.
At this point I gave up and called it quits as it was getting late and hot.
There are a few things I want to check just to rule them out and 1 is why the belt is so tight and the clutch / brake pedal stuck low.
Also wonder if the parking brake, it is also the normal brake, might be frozen on and why it is locked up as I did not pull the pads only the pins that push on the pad.
I hope that is the reason for it not being able to push it and why the keys were removed.
He just texted that he has been in touch with someone in Godwin that may have a trans.
Dave ----

 

Everything you described made me think the transmission is seized up, except for the belt being way too tight and the brake pedal being stuck down. That does make it sound like something is out of whack somewhere.

I found this website many years ago, one thing I loved about it was that I could find repair manuals in PDF format for free download, even for very old stuff. I got one for my 1969 Murray on here, I got one for my 1994 Dixon, etc. It has been many years and I hope they still have this feature, I don't remember exactly where I clicked to find it, but maybe that will be some help to you in troubleshooting.
https://www.jackssmallengines.com/

I had planned to go get my Mustang from storage after dinner, but instead we spent almost 4 hours with a very sick dog going first to a Pet Quick Med in Clayton and then to the one in Raleigh on Vick road. Unfortunately, it was his time and had to be put down. Very sad for me and devastating for Sherry. But he lived a long good life and it was tough so see it end. But yes hopefully tomorrow we can get the Mustang, pull the wheels, do the rotors and calipers. I was hoping to be able to soak the brake line fittings in WD40 overnight to increase the chance of being able to loosen them and save them but we will see.

I did make some good progress on the pickup earlier today. I finally finished the cab corner repair on the drivers side.






Had to weld in some fresh metal for the structure behind the panel.






Bondo got hard too soon and left me a mess to sand off


Second coat of Bondo, and this time you'll notice it's not as "blue" as the first coat. I had way too much hardener the first time.


I know some people don't like glazing putty, but there was just a few tiny spots that weren't big enough to call for bondo, but not small enough to fill in with filler-primer


I did the bottom of the door jamb first with truck bed coating, then primered and colored over it. I hope this makes it tougher



few coats of blue and 2 coats of clear.

Now I am done, thank goodness. I hate body work, I would 10x rather do engine work than this

 

John so sorry to hear about your families lost we know how hard it is with "our" fosters when they go to their forever homes but we know they are going some place good.
We just sent 3 kittens to Pet Smart.
Black is Jeepers he is the first that we are giving up that showed up at our door, car trailer with sons Jeep and why the name.
The orange & white Reily he just wants to hang with you and get love till Jeepers or his brother Kevin, the other kitten run by.

Mary is giving them left over Ricotta Cheese from a spoon and the 2 dogs are saying what about us LOL

Son downloaded the manual and had a copy printed at CVS that I picked up before I went down to work on it yesterday. Thing is it only gives what a homeowner could look into and none of it is what we have, locked up and will not roll even when the disengage rod is pulled. I have not looked into why it will not go into gear yet but I am guessing the tight belt.
The more I get thinking about it and hope (fingers crossed) the brake is stuck on. From the manual the brake is on the pinion of the diff. where the disengage is deeper in the transmission.
Also if it was disengaged it would not have brakes / parking brakes and that just cant be right in my book.
We are going to have to pull the seat and the rear fender pan so we can get to the brake assy. easily as this is a little different that any of the YouTube videos I seen of this set up but they are also gear driven transmission.
It will be later in the week before I can get back down and my son is still getting the house setup and going to work so dont know if he will have time before then.

Truck is looking good
If that was all done in 1 day you were a busy boy.
I hear you on hating body work and why I never did it for a living unlike my brother and he dose not like it either but makes good money doing it out in California.
Is that all for the cab metal / body work? I know you still have the bed to mess with.
Getting close for me to swap over the cab insides and wiring from the parts truck, should not be too bad now that it is getting cooler.

Going to try and cut some grass before I come over so we can knock out them disc brakes up front on the Mustang.
Sorry again for your loss. When ready I know of a group you can get puppies / dogs and / or kittens / cats from just kidding your family needs time to heal.
Dave ----