72F and very sunny @ 09:30 ... high today predicted to be 88F.
Got log dog installed on the 026. Also trimmed back the jungle on the property line between Jeff and Pam's place and ours so that the sheep guy's fence can be been seen from the south corner.
Had just finished dinner last night when there was a knock on the door. It was my neighbor Juan, who is originally from Peru. Nice guy. Family man.
He was having some issues with one of his vehicles - an older Dodge Stratos I think - and wondered if I could take a look at it. Offered to pay me (No, but thanks anyways) Told him to give me 10 minutes and I'd be up.
(About a year ago I had fallen behind on the mowing and he walked down on his own initiative and asked if I was ok and did I need any help with the mowing ? Told him no, but thanks I had it covered.)
Evidently, he's got a guy from work that does mechanical work on his vehicles ... but the guy is often too busy with other stuff to get around to him. Sounded kinda flakey.
Bit of a challenge working with Juan, as his English ain't so great ... and my Spanish is far worse than his English. Anyways, he's wanting to know about getting a rear wheel cylinder replaced, which he thinks is leaking. Apparently, he and his son had the brake drum off and his son told him to push on the brake pedal (bad idea without the brake drum on to hold the pistons in the wheel cylinder from expanding too far) and it squirted brake fluid out on the kid.
I scope it out and the dust boot on the cylinder sure enough has a small hole/tear in it ... but with the brake drum back on, there's no leak of fluid.
So I ask him why they tore into the brakes on this thing in the first place. After some back and forth and a quick test drive I find out that it's making a noise (tick, tick, tick) ... on the other rear wheel. After hearing it, I'm guessing that it's mebbe just an issue with the drum rubbing on something ... possibly the backing plate. So we pull the drum on that rear wheel and sure enough the drum is pretty crusted up with rust where it fits into the backing plate.
Grab him and the drum and head over to the shop and hit it real good with the needle scaler to knock the heavy crust off. Problem solved ... no more tick, tick, tick. Topped off the master cylinder to make up for whatever fluid was when he pushed the pedal with the drum off. Pedal seemed good.
Today when he gets off work in a couple of hours, I'm going to have a look at his mini-van and see what I can see. It has a ticking/knocking/thumping sound on the front right side when it's rollin' ... possibly a CV joint, wheel bearing, suspension/steering parts.
After that might try and get something done on the soil screen frame so I can get it moved out of the shop and get the tractor moved in to work on it.