Thursday September 1, 2016 Guerneville CA.
Headed to Home Depot
I was thinking today would be a good day to get some more black paint for the underside of the van and a couple more things I need to complete the work I want to do to it and I could do some visiting with friends too.
Reset the van’s computer
I was thinking of adjusting the vans idle, but then I decided it would be better to get some miles on the computer to calibrate it first as I pulled the battery off of it to reset it and besides I haven’t really driven the van anywhere to really see what’s going on now that I have mufflers on it.
Buying stuff
So off I went, headed for home depot. I stopped in to visit my friend Joe who lives over near the airport. We shot the bull for about an hour and then I continued to Home Depot. I got what I needed at Home Depot and was going to go to Wal-mart for the spray paint, but decided to check Home Depot’s prices first. I found the prices about the same, so bought six cans of the stuff and made sure I put them in the van this time. I was going to go to Harbor Freight to get a new metal cutting blade for my power hand hacksaw which is a band saw and a great tool. But then I decided I should check Home Depot for them and I wouldn’t have to drive clear over to the other place. While I was looking for the saw blades I decided it would be a good time to get some metal drill bits to replace all the ones I broke on this job and just get some more to have around. It’s the little sizes I break all the time. I found the saw blades and checked out. Most of the big hardware stores give vets ten percent off, so I did ok and had all the stuff I needed now without driving all over Santa Rosa. So I actually did better there than I would have at Wal-mart because they don’t give vets ten percent.
Did some more visiting
Since I now had some extra time I went over to Marty and Patti’s as they just got back from a trip to Canada in their RV.
I shot the bull with them for a bit and showed Marty my van as he has one almost like it, as we built his first. He said the mufflers were too loud. I agree, but everything is a trade off, less noise, less power, I opted for one up from the lease noisiest and that’s just the way it is. If it was really the way I want it, it would sound like an electric and not make any noise.
Adjusted the van’s idle by ear
I drove on home from there and let the van cool down enough and then adjusted the idle down just by ear for now as I have all weekend to use the meter and put it all right.
Turning the idle down has smoothed the engine out nicely. I decided to turn it down now as tomorrow I have to go back to Santa Rosa to get my new front leaf springs installed. The new springs have been sitting in the shop for over a month while I installed the new engine. They were supposed to be installed a long time ago, but the engine died and I had to delay installing them. I’m hoping the new springs will improve the van a lot, so I’m eager to get them installed.
Electrical work
I started to put the passenger seat in when my brother who lives next door and is an organic farmer came by and wanted me to look at and give him ideas on how to wire his green house, so I didn’t get the seat in.
We went over to his green house and discussed what to do. It was dark by the time we got that done.
And that was my day.
