Good Morning! 51F @ 5:00 AM. Windy with rain likely. High 57F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
Yesterday's predicted half inch of rain amounted to only 0.11 here, and the predicted 1" for today is now down to 0.75". Looks like most of the storm is passing to the north, with the strongest part already going through and leaving 0.15". It was heavy enough at its peak to wake me, but only lasted an hour so I may get a bit more of a nap before the day starts.
Beautiful spread you've got there, David! All the rain you get helps explain all those roofs!
I used a Pitman arm puller when I replaced the steering gear on the F250 last year, Don. I think the tool cost $20 at the local auto parts store, but take your "new" steering arm with you to make sure you get a tool that fits. I don't think I've ever struggled so much with getting something off as with that Ford. Days of penetrating oil, oxy-acetylene heat and prodigious smoke, prolonged bouts of impact gun hammering; it just shrugged 'em all off. Finally figured I had little to lose if the puller broke, so put a two foot pipe on the end of a two foot breaker bar, stood on the thing to hold it down, and started twisting for all I was worth. Figured either the puller, the socket, or the breaker bar was going to break first, but very slowly it started to turn and after a few repositionings of the socket it was off. I'd expected a loud BANG when it let loose as that's what all the Internet experts called for. The tool's jaws did spring just a little, but not enough to matter in the end.
That's a long time for a project to sit, Drew, but I think I can beat it with the G/S bike in the rafters here. April will mark 9 years since its purchase, and the only thing that's been done to it is to disassemble it and put everything in what I hope are well marked boxes. I am getting close to starting reassembly of its sibling of the same make and model, but acquired only two years ago, so I'll get some practice solving bagged and boxed mysteries.
There's a new ignition control unit (ICU) on the way to me from my supplier, but he hadn't heard of anyone else having the same problem. I suppose it could be a glitch, but in my experience, solid state electronics either work all the way or not at all, and I suspect some sort of programming error in the hard coding of the ignition curve. In other words I probably have one of the first units from this new batch, and am one of the first to discover the problem. That said, I'm not holding my breath for the new part to do any good, but I'll be quite happy if it does.
Swung by a favorite custom bike builder in town yesterday. He was working on another friend's airhead GS, a nice bike with some nice mods that has been well used off road and shows it. It was getting a rebuilt transmission, the spotlessly shiny case of which contrasted sharply with the grimy oil stained engine case it mated to. Like day and night contrast. The whole bike was crying out for some lovingly applied elbow grease, it was in such a sad state of affairs, and the shiny transmission only served to accentuate that. But the owner seems unwilling to do it himself, and doesn't even want to pay for other little repairs that should be done but don't actually keep the poor thing from moving or stopping. Sigh.
TGIF gentlemen!
. If I have the replacement part already I'm not near as merciful as if I don't. 
