The Daily Diversion Archive For September, 2004

Wednesday September 15, 2004

Happy birthday to Carolyn.

The Twins keep on winning and it's become something of a no-contest finish to the AL Central. Better luck next year Chicago, KC, Cleveland and Detroit.

We've had another addition to our family. No, not a baby or a dog or anything. It's an '87 Volvo 240 Wagon. Pictures to follow.

It has a charging problem that's being a bear to suss out. I'll try to get some stuff done on the weekend on it.

Also on the move is some other stuff. My bikes are both for sale. I'm asking $500 for the Suzuki and any kind of offer on the Gold Wing. Both run, but neither is exactly street ready. The Suzuki needs an ignition switch (or for me to fix it) and some exhaust work. It is more of a "classic" bike and probably shouldn't be used for a daily driver. The Wing has been on the deferred maintenance program for a number of years and is probably fit to be a parts bike at this point. If anyone's interested in these bikes, drop me a line.

We're getting ready for Gus' first birthday coming up. We're going to have a party at the house, but I'm not sure the hours or day as yet.

We've also added a swing set and sandbox to the back yard for Gus. It's starting to look as if a kid lives at our house.

Saturday September 19, 2004

What's cool?

Selling stuff you need to sell, fixing stuff that needs to be fixed and finding stuff that's cool.

What sucks?

Paying bills, getting insurance quotes and politics.

I'm sick of this election. I wish it were over. Whomever wins I'm sure will lead us down the garden path to armageddon and that's just fine with me. I see it as inevitable. So there. Nyah nyah. If you want me I'll be over there doing computer stuff. Harumph.

Bills suck. (Thank you, Einstein. Any more good observations?) Um, no. (sarcastic clapping noise)

I got the Volvo running. As soon as I get the particulars, it'll have its own page over at the master site. The issue was that it wasn't charging. The guy I got it from (thanks, Joe!) had had the alternator re-wound when it quit charging. It still wasn't charging when he stuck it back in, so it was somewhat surprising to find out it was still good when he brought it back to them. OK then.

Fast forward a few months and I now have the car. Joe had some theories about why the thing wasn't charging and I think he gave me the idea of the bad wire. On the '87 Volvo 240 Wagon, there are two red wires connected to the alternator. A big wire--one as thick as someone's thumb that's connected to the battery and that is live with 12V all the time and a small one that's the field exiter for the electormagnet that the alternator needs so it can pass the rotor through the stator and make current.

The deal is that if the electromagnet doesn't do the magnet thing, the alternator makes no current and therefore doesn't charge the battery. With only two wires to deal with and a known, good alternator, there was only a couple of things left to test.

I did a bit of research on charging problems in Volvos and found a bunch of stuff at Brickboard.com. The first thing I checked was the battery warning light on the instrument cluster. The field exiter wire runs through the battery idiot light on the instrument panel so it was just common sense to check that first. I pulled the light and found a lightbulb that I wasn't familiar with. I went to the parts store and got a pack of two and replaced the old one. No light still. Ok, I do know the oil pressure light works so I swapped them out to test the bulbs. The bulb worked, so it wasn't that. On to the next thing.

Apparently, Volvo wiring on some cars from this era had wiring looms/harnesses that didn't stand up very well to heat. It just so happens that the exiter wire runs under the front of the engine and along side the engine block. The fault in the wire had to be somewhere between the alternator and the instrument cluster. Instead of splicing in a wire and routing it along the old course, I decided I'd route through the firewall on the right (passenger side) of the car.

Someone on one of the boards suggested testing it first by just running a wire from the exiter post on the alternator to the + terminal on the battery, starting the car and seeing if it does, indeed charge. I fixed up a wire with a terminal loop and rigged up the test. The car started and the battery charged.

I'm typing this part for the third time now due to battery issues on my laptop and the needs of my child. Know that these following paragraphs were paid for in full with frustration.

Anyhow, having sussed out the problem, I attached the wire permanently to the exiter post on the alternator and left a bit of slack so that the engine could move around a bit and not pull the wire out. I ran the wire around the right side of the engine bay and through the firewall where a bunch of other wires went through. I routed the wire to the back of the instrument cluster and, using the manual's schematic wiring diagram found the place where the red wire attached to the back of the instrument cluster. I cut the wire off as far away from the cluster as I could get it, stripped it back, stripped the replacement wire back a bit and connected the two wires together.

I tested it out and as soon as I turned the key to the first position, there, in its rightful place, was the lit battery icon on the dash. This is good. I started the car, hopped out and took a voltage reading off the battery. 13.5V. That's pretty good. It's a darn site higher than the 10V or so I was getting before the operation.

I stuck the dashboard back together, put away my tools, policed the area for stuff that could cause a problem (kinked wires I left, making sure everything is tied down...) and shut the hood. I took the car out for a spin and a quick bath and I must say it drives pretty well. Mission accomplished.

I think I have the motorcycles sold. Details to come.

Since the Volvo is running, I'm going to have to get a quote on some insurance. I hate doing this because insurance is something I don't know much about and I really hate buying stuff like that. I like to do research, but somehow, insurance gives me the MEGO (my eyes glaze over). It's also anxeity provoking and I just hate having to pay for stuff that I never use. That said, it would suck to drive a mile without it as that's the time that I run into some idiot who will then proceed to send me into the poor house for a moment's mistake.

Someone I work with found a bunch of stuff in a dumpster at work that may prove to be very cool. More to come.

Sunday September 20, 2004

It's been a wild weekend. Not wild in a hurricane Ivan way, but wild in a changes in life kind of way. For the first time since I was 19, I'm without a motorcycle. It's tough to deal with that thought, but I just had to get a change of scenery in the garage. Back in the day when I had a 2+ car garage to play in, I could afford to have a bunch of bikes. Back in the day I also had the time to go work on them. Nowadays, I don't have the space nor the time to work on the bikes, so there they sat.

There's a sort of unwritten rule around our house that if a project sits for too long, we owe ourselves to assess the project and see if perhaps we're stuck or unmotivated to go any further with it. The bikes had sat for at least a year and I hadn't been out yet this summer. The biking year is coming to a close and I just don't think it's going to happen. Instead of looking at all that potential fun I wasn't having staring me in the face every time I took the dog out, it was better to just set them free. I'll be back next year with a different bike.

Monday September 21, 2004

I don't know what's more significant to me tonight: The Twins winning the pennant or the pain in my neck.

The Twins beat the White Sux tonight to clinch their 3rd pennant in 3 years. They did it with pitching and playing that was really a joy to watch. Impressive season, guys. Let's win a World Series.

As for pain, I got it bad. I think I got it working on the Volvo this weekend. I don't know exactly how I strained my neck, but it feels like I have a knife stuck in the middle of the back of my neck. It hurts so bad that it hurts to swallow. It hurts like all hell accellerating in the car, too. I really can't turn my head and that really suck because you never know how much you turn your head during the day until you can't.

I went to the clinic to get checked out and for the first time in three visits where I've been in very big pain I got something for the pain. Thanks to Dr. Y for coming up big for me when I needed it. Thanks to the stuff he gave me, I have a hope in hell of getting some sleep tonight.

Gus is standing up by himself now, but no walking yet. He's added some new sounds to his vocabulary and his S sound is getting much more clear. Also, in a move that startled and amused everyone who saw it, Gus blew his first raspberry on one of the couch cushions this evening. It was too cute for words.

Thursday September 30, 2004

Open Letter To Microsoft:

Things to make better in the next version of your desktop OS:

I'd really like to see Windows Explorer work far more quickly than it does. I spend my day shuffling lots of files and I sit and rot rather often waiting for Windows Explorer to open a folder with a lot of sub-folders or with a lot of files. I don't think it's excessive to have 30,000 files in a folder--especially if they're named after specific points in time. Opening a folder such as this in WE takes a looong time. I've taken to walking to the drinking fountain to get a drink or doing other small errands instead of staring at a dumb little hourglass.

Don't have the next OS try to do too much for me, the advanced user. Have an all-encompassing master mode switch that a person could select the first time they log on. Make the modes: Training Wheels--for those folks who hate the PC and wish they didn't have to know anything about it or for those folks who are just beginning to use the PC. Sidekick/Servant mode--this would be for people who like their PC and really like having it do things for them automatically. DVD's would automatically play in whatever DVD player, .mp3 files would automatically play in what ever music player and the whole machine would be in the "don't get me into trouble" mode. Expert mode--this would be for folks like me. Turn off the eye candy, make the thing fast as hell, stop doing stupid stuff for me, turn off the 'are you sure' messages, assume I know how to setup networking, assume I want to connect to any and all wireless networks in my vicinity and turn off the damn firewall until I want the damn thing on.

I found myself at the top of the Foshay Tower last night. It was way cool. I was out volunteering with my wife's organization and one of the perqs was the guests got to go up to the Foshay's observation deck after the event. It was way way waaaay cool. I got some interesting pictures and some fairly fresh air. It was neato.

My neck feels better, but it's not 100%. It gets tight every once in a while and that's fairly irritating.