2019 POTD Thread Archive

Franko, that is here you ensure you have something with hand holds where you can roll over to it and use it to grab and help get up. It does work.
 
Franko, that is here you ensure you have something with hand holds where you can roll over to it and use it to grab and help get up. It does work.

The frame is steel square tube. and can be grabbed. I usually grab the frame to roll myself on my side, then awkwardly push myself up. It's pathetic. Every day that passes, I get more decrepit.
 
I've got a couple of the small Toro 21" single stage snowblowers, and they work great for most of the places I do, and recently they both have problems with the choke handle, in that the detent's for holding the choke in various positions have worn off, and it appears that I would need to replace the carb on both of them to get them back (for awhile, at least, until they wear out again) and carbs are about $75 each.

Right now, while using them, the choke now automatically comes on, as the choke handle has a fair amount of mass, and the snowblower gets tilted back a bit to reposition it, so the choke naturally wants to fall (when the machine is tilted) and the choke comes on. The plugs get fouled, also uses a bit more oil because of it being on, uses more gas and the engine runs very poorly. Since this happens all the time (as in, 5-10 seconds after pushing it in, it'll be back out again), it's very annoying.

I was going to use some spring plungers (purchased, I'm not good at making very small bits like they have), but evidently no retailer in the Edmonton area has them, to make a longer lasting detent setup on the choke handle itself. In particular, Acklands Grainger is very annoying, their web site said when I ordered I can pick them up tomorrow, I phoned them about trying to pick them up today, and was informed that not only do they not have them in edmonton, none of their warehouses in Canada have them, and the manufacturer they get them from also doesn't have any, and has no date for when they might have some

In the meantime, I decided to make a simple latch for the choke lever to hold it in, that I can work with gloved hands.

First, the detailed design document (can't do work without it):
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And the part, as made, installed:
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I used a much thicker than necessary piece of metal for the end of the latch, primarily to give it some extra mass to try to stop it from bouncing up enough for the choke lever to be able to shift back. I'll see how it works tomorrow, and may look through a bag of springs I have to see there is a small spring I could put on one side of the latch to hold it down more securely. And I used a spring pin for the hinge, with the center piece drilled a little larger to be able to rotate freely on it.

Note, there was real machining as part of this project, as I used my lathe to drill the hole in a rod to make that hinge, as well as to part it off the remainder of the rod.
 
Today i started back to work on the Little Niva, first on the list was the upgraded water pump, i used a razor blade to remove all the old gasket and i apply hitemp silicone on both sides of the new gasket, i also got me some new stainless washers, spring washers and nuts together with some antisize i wanted to make it easy to change next time, then time come to fit the alternator that i modified, i made a new pulley from scratch also had to use the special bolt this alternators use, which makes them easy to fit and remove, i'll need to find an peugeot alternator bracket so i can modify it to fit here because i like how easy they are to tension the belt. Next on the list was a big oil leak from the mechanical fuel pump, i thought maybe the pushrod guide was broken but it was just missing the gaskets, i had a spare guide and i made new gaskets and reassembled it, the fuel pump seams to be changed recently , the filter screen is clean, and the pump has made in russia written on it, definitely not the original last thing i managed to fit is the carburetor, i fitted the mechanical secondaries carb with new gaskets and freshly painted drip tray, also with new stainless washers and nuts.
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The frame is steel square tube. and can be grabbed. I usually grab the frame to roll myself on my side, then awkwardly push myself up. It's pathetic. Every day that passes, I get more decrepit.

I know the feeling. I'm thinking it wont be long before I put a remote controlled winch on the ceiling of the shop, so I can roll myself over there and winch my sorry old a$$ up. :) Or I could stick to machining, as I'm already standing for that.
 
So , you think I've been slouching ! Moved about 5 ,000 lbs of end mills and other junk up to my house getting ready for the yard sale . My back is killing me .
I wish I lived in your neighborhood
Good luck with the sale!
 
Today i continued working on the little Niva, it was one step forwards, two steps back type of a day, most of my time got spent figuring out how and where to place the radiator, and first thing i figured out that the fans are way too big, the radiator is thicker and double the width of the original so i'll need to place the fans to be pusher fans also some more trimming is required, i remove the horn bracket to test fit it, also had to trim back the feet on the radiator to fit in between the inner fenders, it has around a centimetre between it and the frame rails and i'll trim the upper mounts and make couple of bolt on brackets, then i turn my attention on the splash guards for the bottom of the engine, they had lots of grease grime and rust, i spent a good hour cleaning them and spray them down with anti rust acid, last thing i did before finishing is to send and apply some more body filler on the trunk lid and rocker panel.
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