Posted By RichC on June 22, 2016
Saw this in my social network feed the other day … too funny not too share.
Found … Large cat, cream colored, no collar or tags. Doesn’t get along well with my other cats or dogs. Needs to be the only cat in the household. Not very friendly. If this is your car, please claim it.
Posted By RichC on June 22, 2016
The tools my dad had were for the most part Craftsman (Sears) … and the sockets and ratchets that I have are almost all Craftsman … and the set I gave to for Taylor are as well. Interesting thing … even though I have a couple broken sockets and ratchets, I’ve never tried to return them back to see if they will replace? Today I tossed a couple in the back of my car … so let’s see how difficult it is to get them replaced? (although finding a Sears is becoming more and more difficult!)
Posted By RichC on June 21, 2016
My son-in-law Drew had a special treat after an evening at the Ridgeview Medical Center fundraiser in Waconia, Minnesota. It looks like my daughter Katelyn persuaded her colleague, fellow pediatrician Dr. Adam Weber, to take Drew up for an evening flight in his 
Bellanca Citabria (Of interest: When the original manufacturer Champion Aircraft derived the name for this aerobatic capable model, they just spelled “airbatic” backwards). 
The evening could not have been more picturesque for a flight and is probably a great way for a pilot to “hook” a couple on the love of flying. Very nice!
Posted By RichC on June 21, 2016
It was past time for brake maintenance as the wear sensor on the BMW X5 35d has been warning me to replace the front brakes for weeks. After a bit of research, I opted for the Power Stop (17-1294) Evolution-Plus Ceramic brakes and am hoping to reduce the dirty brake dust. I’m hoping for continued solid and repeated hard stops without over heating or fading, yet have cleaner wheels (that is yet to be seen). So far I’m happy with the price, have take care to break-in appropriately and current solid stops. Who knows now long they will last, but so far they have been solid.
Hear are a few of my tips from years and years of replacing brakes. First, fully compress the caliper on the car and before you remove the old pads. You can gentle apply pressure to force the brake caliper open (watch the brake fluid reservoir) using a small pry bar (be sure you can compress without turning — ie. Volkswagens require a special tool). Don’t use the rotor itself to pry against. If that doesn’t work … a clamp works wonders to evenly put pressure on the disc faced caliper.
Also liberally use the Disc Brake Quiet as it both helps the new disc stick when reassembling as well as eliminates chatter.
Before putting the "giant" wheels and tires back on the X5 (they are amazingly large and wide), be sure to clean off the grungy buildup of brake dust and then add some anti-seize or lithium grease to keep things from freezing over time. I hate snapping off a stud or component (used a Helicoil on the old Mercedes when this happened … but I’m not sure it was the best solution?)
Speaking of frozen, rusted or corroded in place … I could not even "mule kick" the front wheel loose when taking it off the car. I had to end up "jerry rigging" (correct term), a small bottle jack and length of oak in order to force the two front wheels apart and pop the stuck one off. Worked like a charm.
Posted By RichC on June 20, 2016
We had another outstanding summer weekend weather-wise and enjoyed every minute of each day. I spent my Father’s Day afternoon working on the BMW X5 35d and installing a 2" hitch receiver (upcoming post). Getting all the snapped and clipped on trim off was the biggest hassle … but it is done.
We enjoyed grilling ribs (again) in the afternoon since Taylor came over to wish me a Happy Father’s Day after his weekend with friends up at Lake Erie in Vermillion, Ohio … the place we first kept our Brenich in the early to mid-1980s. He took his car into the dealership for repairs so was driving a loner BMW X1 — of course he loved it! Katelyn called too (Drew texted early) and I enjoy a nice long talk with her (we do miss seeing them). 
Grandma Howard left was with us for the weekend so I took the opportunity to send a photo to the sisters mentioning the "old relic" … the 1958 Packard Hawk in the background (above — what were you thinking?) Ha!
Almost forget to mention … it all started off with my buddy Jeff bringing over a bottle of Lattitude 50 wine from the Grey Monk Estate Winery for dinner on Friday night — leftover memories from our trip to Canmore, Alberta from our Canadian Rockies trip in 2005 … GREAT MEMORIES! Thanks Jeff.
Posted By RichC on June 20, 2016
The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals for the first title in franchise history.
Led by hometown star LeBron James, the Cavaliers fended off the defending champions to give their city its first major sports title in over 50 years. The victory also marked an unprecedented comeback: No NBA team has ever won a seven-game title series after falling behind 1-3.
Posted By RichC on June 19, 2016
Unknown to many sailors, the halyard knot is nonetheless an elegant compact knot that is particularly handy to know about if you need to bend a line on to some sort of shackle or clip (a halyard shackle being the eponymous example) on a more-or-less permanent basis, but are too lazy (or ignorant) to be bothered with actually splicing the line on to said bit of hardware. (see SAILfeed)
The knot most people use in these situations is, of course, the perennial and ubiquitous bowline, which is not quite ideal in this application, as it is bulkier than it needs to be (a drawback, for instance, when you have to hoist a halyard shackle up close to masthead sheave) and involves a fixed bight or loop of line that necessarily must be larger than necessary.
The halyard knot is very easy to tie. Pass a line through the shackle in question, take two full turns around the standing part, then slip the bitter end up through the turns alongside the standing part. The result is a low-profile slip knot that will snug down tight and neatly against the shackle.
The halyard knot is very secure and is very unlikely to come undone after it has been loaded up. Unlike a bowline, however, it is not that easy to untie once it has been in service for a while. In the end, when you want to get your shackle back, you may have to cut it off. At a minimum you’ll need a nice marlinspike to pick it apart.
Source: KNOT OF THE YEAR AWARD: The Obscure But Ultimately Very Useful Halyard Knot
Posted By RichC on June 18, 2016
Finally found enough time to remove even more items from the BMW X5 35d … this time it was to replace the EGR and the EGR cooler assembly with a "gorgeous" billet aluminum EGR Race Pipe from FixMyVW ccm. The photo on left below is fresh out of the package and below and on the right installed without the Throttle Actuator.
The entire process is not for the faint of heart as access under the hood of these rather expensive vehicles is not that easy. Andrew (of FixMyVW.com) 
has a BMW 335d sedan and gave me a few tips, but he probably didn’t want to frighten me about just how tight some of areas are. My point of warning: installing the block off plate is about as "by feel" as you can get … even after removing quite a few components including the EGR cooler and aluminum handling components just over the radiator fan. The photo (rt) does not do it justice … but I dangled the iPhone down in the "hole" and snap this photo before tightening the block off plate and gasket down tight.
The soot in the intake manifold was not bad at all (above left) and I’m including a couple photos of how I bypassed the EGR vacuum actuator and cooling components after removing the expensive EGR cooler (will include a photo of that part later).
Finally I put the relatively new Throttle Actuator onto the new EGR Race Pipe. I only drove around the block because I’m a bit low on coolant. (TIP: buy a gallon of BMW coolant before removing the EGR cooler … you’ll lose some.)
Posted By RichC on June 17, 2016
Another Elio Motors update detailed more on a variety of engineering points (my previous posts) … particularly on how the Elio will achieve the advertised 84 mpg.
Powertrain – An Efficient Union of Technology and Efficiency
The other system we’re checking out this week is the Elio’s powertrain, which will help the Elio run as sweet as it looks. It consists of a .9 liter, 3-cylinder engine that was designed for us by IAV, mated to a five-speed manual or automatic transmission that is provided by Aisin. In addition to the Elio’s 55 horsepower
and 55 lb.-ft. of torque, the vehicle’s up to 84 mpg fuel economy on the highway is expected to help it put more than a few dollars of gas money back in your pocket.
How can the Elio’s powertrain help it to get better fuel economy than some of the most fuel-efficient motorcycles that get 65 mpg, you ask? There are two key reasons. First is aerodynamics, the nuts and bolts of which we’ll talk about more in depth in an upcoming Momentum post. Despite the frontal area of a motorcycle being smaller than the Elio, the overall aerodynamic drag in a motorcycle could be higher, particularly depending on rider position, because the Eliohas an enclosed, streamlined surface.
The second reason is gearing. You may have noticed that most motorcycles, which are built for fun, are designed to maximize acceleration, not fuel economy.The Elio can achieve fuel economy of 20 to 25-percent more because it has taller (higher) gearing that reduced engine speeds. Because the Elio engine was designed to produce high torque on the low end, it doesn’t compromise acceleration from a standing start.
Fuel economy is an Elio Motors’ “Must Have” and one of the key drivers prompting the company to develop its own engine, versus using an off-the-shelf power plant. Because the Elio is significantly lighter than the vehicles that are powered by even the smallest existing engines, their power plants’ DNA destines them to fall short of our 84 mpg highway target.
Read the Full Post
Posted By RichC on June 16, 2016
It looks like a farewell “again” for Neil Zurcher from WLW in Cleveland. I remember ‘One Tank Trip’ from our 13 years in the Cleveland area as we often looked for things to do when our time off was short (well it still is!) His trips were a highlight of things to do when our kids were little and we included several of his covered areas when looking for semi-local places to visit. Thankfully with books and the Internet, most of his trips are still available. Thank you Neil for your “One Tank Trips.”
