I'm going to work on the rust in the back of the van. It's not bad but there are one or two areas where it needs attention. I'm also going to try something new, I'm going to take pictures along the way and post them as I go. I've got all day and I'm going to take my time.
I need to find some metal to make repairs on the crossmember and bumper. I was going to go to Haverhill Steel but they may not be open this Saturday on account of the gas line explosions.
I can get what I need at the Home Despot. The metal doesn't need to be thick and I think the depot carries 16 gage. I wanted something thicker just so it would be easier to weld.
The bumper will be patched and painted. I got I good idea off the internet, taping off the bumper in a way to make a strip that covers the patch and spraying it with textured bed liner.
We will see how that works.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
I got my driveshaft back from the shop!
And it's beautiful!
It's shiny, painted black and most important, straight and balanced! It was a bit more than they quoted me for but it's still less than buying it new. Apparently the tube size is odd and it's a pain for them to weld the ends so all of this cost about double of what they guessed over the phone.
It's still a win.
 |
Once again, not my driveshaft, but until I have a picture of it this will do.
|
It's shiny, painted black and most important, straight and balanced! It was a bit more than they quoted me for but it's still less than buying it new. Apparently the tube size is odd and it's a pain for them to weld the ends so all of this cost about double of what they guessed over the phone.
It's still a win.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
The trouble with driveshafts
So, when I purchased my van, I was aware of several defects. Some I was told about and some I found when I inspected it. These issues allowed me to get some money taken off the asking price.
The driveshaft was one that got by me.
I didn't see it, didn't expect it to be bad, didn't look.
I found it when I removed the driveshaft to change the universal joints.
I dropped it out of the van and onto the floor and pushed it so it would roll out from under the chassis.
I witnessed what can be described best as a trying to roll a banana across a table. It made one revolution and rocked back and forth in place. I just laid there staring at it, at first not connecting what I just saw.
I got up ad dragged it out and up onto the table. Upon inspection I found a large dent and good bend in the tube. I wasn't upset, I figured I could just get another one at the junkyard. I didn't know how wrong I was.
This van is a 1997 Dodge B2500. The year is important because it is the year dodge moved the engine forward about six inches. This 'transition' year makes it pretty much impossible to find a driveshaft. I even tried older years with no luck.
The closest I came to finding one was in a junk yard in Massachusetts, they had the exact year and model conversion van with the same transmission. They told me that they remove the driveshafts and toss them in the vehicle so the fork trucks wont damage it. Well, did I mention it was winter and the yard was all down hill and the van was about as far back as you could get in the yard.
After what could best be called an expedition, I arrived at my frozen prize. It was flat on the ground with no tires and about half buried in icy snow. I dug out the side doors and looked inside but I did not see the driveshaft. I sighed and started digging out the undercarriage. Once I removed enough of the ice coffin I peered in and found that the driveshaft was still in place and bend worse than mine.
The climb back to civilization was not only difficult, but without what I had gone to recover it was almost unbearable.
The guy at the desk apologized and offered to find me one in the vast collection of parts available on the online database of junk yards around the country. Luckily, he found one close and had it shipped.
After a few days they called and told me that it was there. I drove down that same day excited that my dilemma would soon be over.
I walked in and they went into the back room to get my new (to me) driveshaft. what I saw when they brought it out made my heart sink. It was aluminum. Being aluminum, it was for the later version of my van with the pushed up engine. They had me check it anyway.
I rolled it under the van and with the help of the counter guy we held it up in place. it shot past the transmission a good six inches.
We walked back to the office and apologized again and he jumped on the parts net once again. This time he found one that was steel, he confirmed it by calling them. And a couple of days later we had it.
Now, here is where I would like to make a suggestion. When you have a catalog of parts available online, there should be standards for things like descriptions, materials and most importantly, measurements. The length of a driveshaft is a crap shoot as far as who takes the measurement.
As I had found out. The one we got in was too long by about three inches. My best guess is that it was out of a van that had a different transmission or rear end or both.
One of the other problems with my van is that it is a conversion van. It is a B2500 (3/4 ton) but the driveshaft is not the same as a standard 3/4 ton. It's more like the B1500 half ton.
So, they told me that they were now losing money and they would not ship any more in. That door shut.
Discouraged, I drove back to the shop, pulled the driveshaft out and straightened and balanced it the best I could. I could not afford a new driveshaft so I left it.
Two years later I tried another junk yard and found one that appeared to be right. It sat behind me in my van for another year.
Three years later here I am going through the van to repair all the issues it has. I dropped the driveshaft out threw it up on my bench and compared the two. It was too short.
I'm going to make a sculpture out of it.
After searching the interwebs for a solution I happened on a shop in North Andover, MA who specializes in rebuilding driveshafts. That is were it is at the moment I'm writing this. I should have it back tomorrow. And the bill should be less that three hundred.
Between the driveshaft I bought a year ago and this one, it's still cheaper that buying a new one.
So I'm calling this a win.
The driveshaft was one that got by me.
I didn't see it, didn't expect it to be bad, didn't look.
I found it when I removed the driveshaft to change the universal joints.
I dropped it out of the van and onto the floor and pushed it so it would roll out from under the chassis.
I witnessed what can be described best as a trying to roll a banana across a table. It made one revolution and rocked back and forth in place. I just laid there staring at it, at first not connecting what I just saw.
 |
| Not my driveshaft but it's close. |
I got up ad dragged it out and up onto the table. Upon inspection I found a large dent and good bend in the tube. I wasn't upset, I figured I could just get another one at the junkyard. I didn't know how wrong I was.
This van is a 1997 Dodge B2500. The year is important because it is the year dodge moved the engine forward about six inches. This 'transition' year makes it pretty much impossible to find a driveshaft. I even tried older years with no luck.
The closest I came to finding one was in a junk yard in Massachusetts, they had the exact year and model conversion van with the same transmission. They told me that they remove the driveshafts and toss them in the vehicle so the fork trucks wont damage it. Well, did I mention it was winter and the yard was all down hill and the van was about as far back as you could get in the yard.
After what could best be called an expedition, I arrived at my frozen prize. It was flat on the ground with no tires and about half buried in icy snow. I dug out the side doors and looked inside but I did not see the driveshaft. I sighed and started digging out the undercarriage. Once I removed enough of the ice coffin I peered in and found that the driveshaft was still in place and bend worse than mine.
The climb back to civilization was not only difficult, but without what I had gone to recover it was almost unbearable.
The guy at the desk apologized and offered to find me one in the vast collection of parts available on the online database of junk yards around the country. Luckily, he found one close and had it shipped.
After a few days they called and told me that it was there. I drove down that same day excited that my dilemma would soon be over.
I walked in and they went into the back room to get my new (to me) driveshaft. what I saw when they brought it out made my heart sink. It was aluminum. Being aluminum, it was for the later version of my van with the pushed up engine. They had me check it anyway.
I rolled it under the van and with the help of the counter guy we held it up in place. it shot past the transmission a good six inches.
We walked back to the office and apologized again and he jumped on the parts net once again. This time he found one that was steel, he confirmed it by calling them. And a couple of days later we had it.
Now, here is where I would like to make a suggestion. When you have a catalog of parts available online, there should be standards for things like descriptions, materials and most importantly, measurements. The length of a driveshaft is a crap shoot as far as who takes the measurement.
As I had found out. The one we got in was too long by about three inches. My best guess is that it was out of a van that had a different transmission or rear end or both.
One of the other problems with my van is that it is a conversion van. It is a B2500 (3/4 ton) but the driveshaft is not the same as a standard 3/4 ton. It's more like the B1500 half ton.
So, they told me that they were now losing money and they would not ship any more in. That door shut.
Discouraged, I drove back to the shop, pulled the driveshaft out and straightened and balanced it the best I could. I could not afford a new driveshaft so I left it.
Two years later I tried another junk yard and found one that appeared to be right. It sat behind me in my van for another year.
Three years later here I am going through the van to repair all the issues it has. I dropped the driveshaft out threw it up on my bench and compared the two. It was too short.
 |
| Again, not my driveshaft but it illustrates my point. |
I'm going to make a sculpture out of it.
After searching the interwebs for a solution I happened on a shop in North Andover, MA who specializes in rebuilding driveshafts. That is were it is at the moment I'm writing this. I should have it back tomorrow. And the bill should be less that three hundred.
Between the driveshaft I bought a year ago and this one, it's still cheaper that buying a new one.
So I'm calling this a win.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Progress on the Van Part 2
I have some time at home to sit at my desktop and properly write this.
In the past two weeks I have removed the front bumper,
And removed the front suspension parts. ( sorry about the bad photo )
I also removed the running board covers, leaving the structure.
I replaced the passenger side idler arm with a new high quality one.
I also cleaned and painted the frame and surrounding metal.
This is a shot of the drivers side. I replaced the upper and lower control arms as well as the steering linkage inner and outer ball joints as well as the connecting sleeve.
Same for the passenger side.
I also replaced all four shocks.
For the first time since I have owned this vehicle, the front end is tight as it was when it was new,
Next week I will have pictures of the work I started on the back. There are some rust issues i'm addressing.
I'm also working on the rear drum brakes.
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Van project part 1
I'm starting my new project involving my van. Here is the breakdown.
Remove:
Front bumper
Running boards
Rear seat
Carpet
Front Upper Space
Running boards
Rear seat
Carpet
Front Upper Space
Repair:
Front end
Driveshaft
Front end
Driveshaft
Rust Issues in Rear
Engine vacuum and gaskets
Front blower
Front Bumper
Engine vacuum and gaskets
Front blower
Front Bumper
Key
Finished
In Progress
Not Started
It's not a complete list but these things tend to add more items along the way. This is a good start.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
The job is still great
For the past eight or so weeks I have been very happy with my job, and this is a change for me. I usually start getting bored about now.
As a matter of fact, I started looking for a place to live. I guess since my job isn't stressing me out I had to find something to make me crazy.
I've been looking for about three weeks and it's not going well. The rents are crazy high anywhere near work, which is about 30 miles.
Now, I don't make the big bucks, I have a standard but steady job and I make a decent, or what I consider decent money. My friends would not agree with me. They would place me in the near poverty category. Although if you look up the poverty level wage it is a lot less. My friends just make a lot more money and most of them are married or live with someone so they don't get hit with the whole monthly cost. They seem to forget I have to foot the entire bill every month.
Now I understand why rents are high, it's all tied to the realestate market and what the public is willing to pay. But when the best excuse is that's what the area is charging, I start to wonder if any property owners remember how difficult it was when they rented.
So, since I couldn't get a straight answer, I started into my own investigation. Why are rents so stupid high so that an average wage earner, as defined by the government, can't afford a decent place to live. I don't want to live in a low income area in the slums, I don't qualify as a low income person and I don't want the indignity of living like that.
Thankfully, since I don't qualify as low income, I also don't qualify for low income housing. But the surrounding areas are the affordable areas. Low cost, and all the squaller. Somewhere I would need to expect my car would get broke into regularly, have loud neighbors and generally be a demilitarized zone.
And when I say low cost, it's still about half my monthly salary. This is another sticking point for me. As defined by some organization, I should expect to pay one third to one half of my monthly income for housing. Who thought that up? I looked up the current living wage as defined by living wage.mit.edu, it states for a single person a living hourly wage of $12.93.
As a matter of fact, I started looking for a place to live. I guess since my job isn't stressing me out I had to find something to make me crazy.
I've been looking for about three weeks and it's not going well. The rents are crazy high anywhere near work, which is about 30 miles.
Now, I don't make the big bucks, I have a standard but steady job and I make a decent, or what I consider decent money. My friends would not agree with me. They would place me in the near poverty category. Although if you look up the poverty level wage it is a lot less. My friends just make a lot more money and most of them are married or live with someone so they don't get hit with the whole monthly cost. They seem to forget I have to foot the entire bill every month.
Now I understand why rents are high, it's all tied to the realestate market and what the public is willing to pay. But when the best excuse is that's what the area is charging, I start to wonder if any property owners remember how difficult it was when they rented.
So, since I couldn't get a straight answer, I started into my own investigation. Why are rents so stupid high so that an average wage earner, as defined by the government, can't afford a decent place to live. I don't want to live in a low income area in the slums, I don't qualify as a low income person and I don't want the indignity of living like that.
Thankfully, since I don't qualify as low income, I also don't qualify for low income housing. But the surrounding areas are the affordable areas. Low cost, and all the squaller. Somewhere I would need to expect my car would get broke into regularly, have loud neighbors and generally be a demilitarized zone.
And when I say low cost, it's still about half my monthly salary. This is another sticking point for me. As defined by some organization, I should expect to pay one third to one half of my monthly income for housing. Who thought that up? I looked up the current living wage as defined by living wage.mit.edu, it states for a single person a living hourly wage of $12.93.
Another independent group whom I can't remember the name of did a more comprehensive study and determined that the real living wage for Rockingham county was more like $21.70. I agree with this number. Unless someone is willing to show me, with math, how a single person can live on $12.93/hr. I don't want to hear any critiques about my statements.
Any how, I find myself in a pickle. The places I can afford are not in good areas or beyond a reasonable distance from work. One option is to move back in with my parents, I don't want to do this, I should be able to take care of myself on what I make.
Ok enough rant for now.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Ok, i accept that i may be somewhat predictable
I'm not going out to New Mexico yet. I was offered a great job and I took it. So for the meantime New Mexico will be my retirement.
I sold my property in Canada so I have some money to put away. I'll use my great insurance coverage to get myself back to a normal state and hopefully it will not break the bank.
So, what am I doing now. I'm a warehouse manager. I ship and receive and maintain the stock. So far it's going very well, I'm enjoying myself. The building is climate controlled so the hot Summers and cold winter won't be an issue.
I still sweat like nobody's business though. It gets annoying.
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