Bad Bearings No Go and the Mice Invade and the New Mouse Trap Idea

Monday October 7, 2019 Guerneville CA.

Car bearing work continues

Some times one just needs a fresh start when mechanicing to get things done when they don’t want to go.

Fresh start

So I gave it a fresh start this morning and tried to get the axle in the bearing.

No go

I tried but no go. After thinking about it for a bit I decided to remove the spindle and the axle from the car and try it.

I removed the spindle and the axle which isn’t shown.

Still not working

I took the parts to  my vice and tried again and still no go so what to do?

When all else fails measure

When things don’t fit the best thing to do is get out the measuring devices and measure the parts and see what’s going on. Lucky for me I have the measuring stuff as I used to be a machinist at one time in my youth.

The axle is bigger than the bearing hole

Well here’s what I found and why it’s not going together. The axle is 1.378 inches and the bearing insides where the axle goes through is 1.377  to  1.378 inches, not good as you can’t put 1.378 through a 1.377 inch hole.

Ordered more new parts

I called Napa parts in Santa Rosa to get some new bearings and checked the measurements out with the guy too. He said the axle is the right size but the bearings are wrong and are supposed to be 1.378 inches to fit, so I ordered some more new ones and can get them tomorrow. Metal parts either fit or they don’t and there is no forcing metal parts to fit, they either do or they don’t, period.

Mouse problem

That brought that job to a halt for the day so I did some chair hopping and thinking about what to do about the mice’s getting into my feed shed last night.

When I went out to do something in the dark at the shed I opened the door and saw a mouse dart under some stuff. I kicked the stuff and more mice headed for where they got in. About a dozen mice headed for the hole as I rattled the empty feed sacks.

They’d chewed through a plastic sheet that is used for a window. There was a little hole in it and they enlarged it enough to get in.

Mouse trap

Now I don’t need to be feeding every mouse in the neighborhood so I needed to do something constructive.

An idea came to me as I was chair hopping.

Since they ate their way in and go like mad to get out through the hole they made why not use that as a trap.

Here’s the new trap idea

Here’s the trap I constructed out of that hole. I glued on two inch pipe so they have to come through the pipe to get in and can stand on the bucket to do so. I have a camera on this that I can monitor from my computer. When I see mice go in I can go out and remove the bucket lid and go in and chase the mice out into the bucket with water in it.

That’s the plan and we’ll give it a try.

Some more chair hopping and I hauled a few more loads of mulch to the potatoes patch and the day was over.

Nice day just mostly puttering around and good to get the bearings sorted out too. It’s all just part of mechanicing.