It moves !

Today a big shout out to Butch and Bonnie Kennedy. I mentioned my predicament with wheel hubs and wrenches and by lunchtime Bonnie turned up with a 1 inch socket, a 1and 1/8th socket and a 24 inch pipe wrench. For reasons that I don't understand the 1 inch was too small and the 1,1/8th was too big but just like Goldilocks and the porridge, the pipe wrench was just right. (As a slight aside, Butch tells me that most of his tools were inherited from his Daddy. Looking at this pipe wrench, which weights about 20 lbs I cannot help but to wonder if tools were not made just a little bit better in days of yore).

So with a bit of a grunt the nuts were spun off, of course this still left the hubs frozen on. I soon realised that the hill brake had been applied and the two cables then rusted in place. By knocking out the connecting pins and the judicious use of a mallet I was able to free the shoes and off came the hubs. The shoes have plenty of meat on them which will save me $60 and with a clean and a grease it was all back together. I was able to WD40 the cables and got them kind of, sort of, maybe working. Now I am not sure that I trust my life to a set of 24 year old rusty brake cables so in the fullness of time they will be replaced but for now I have brakes that work when you press the pedal and release when you don't. All the tires were flat and without much hope I tried to get some air in them and to my surprise they all held air. It goes without saying that they will be replaced even if these 8 inch tires cost an outageous $50 each (softly sobbing). For the first time in years the cart can be pushed around and that is a good end to the week.

I have ordered the service manual and hopefully it will arrive during the weekend. Then I can start the engine removal and stripdown. Once I am assured that the engine can be saved then I will start spending money. If the the engine has thrown a rod or similar then I have lost nothing but time spend doing what I love, dicking around.

PS My buddy JC liked the idea of the grass print body wrap and suggested that if I do go that way I should replace the floor mat with astroturf. How cool is that? Now with a grass theme for the cart how could I not get this souvenir tag from the DMV?

Virginia wildflowers, yes please.