Monday, August 30, 2010

FAIL !

I hope that this isn't the start of things to come but I may now be keeping a blog about failures. I have 1.9 hours on the engine and the first breakdown.

This morning I staggered downstairs and the lower I got the more I could smell gasoline. Eventually I got to the kitchen and it really was quite overpowering. The culprits were going to be the 63 Galaxie, the 2009 Soltice or the cart. Hoping that a kitten may have accidentally opened a can of gas and then tipped it over I ventured into the garage and found a puddle of gas under the cart. A quick look and it was clear that the gas was leaking from, of all places, the exhaust manifold. This as you can imagine was quite confusing but by a process of elimination (thank you Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) I worked out that it has to be a split diaphragm in the fuel pump. Casting caution and my wallet to the wind I drove to Martinsville and picked up a new pump. It is about the only part that I have not replaced so what the hell. Of course with the new pump fitted I had to check out the old one and here it is.

The diaphragm (steady girls) is bottom right and if you squint your eyes you can just see the crack. Now I don't know if it's all psychosomatic but the little buggy seems to be flying with the new pump, maybe the leak was causing it to run too rich, we will see.

Actually the cart now has a name. It is called the Little F***ker. This derives from Susie saying get that little f***ker out into the yard. Now you might think that was a little uncalled for but she then proceeded to toss her cookies down the powder room. Personally I find the smell of gasoline (and Hoppes No.9 ) an aphrodisiac and I kind of figured with her bent over the bog it might be a good time to plight my troth but you know what, Monday mornings are painful enough without the unpleasantness of a spot of humpty dumpty getting in the way.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

And there she is

There are still a couple of things to tidy up and I need to fabricate the uprights for the roof but essentially she is done!


Even though I say so myself she isn't too shabby. It took nearly 3 evenings to get the trim back on and I now see why later carts don't have rubber trim.


Check out the headlights. They may be tiny but that's 110 watts there so even when totally in the arms of Bacchus I should see my way home.


Astroturf and the rear floormats from my old minivan (I miss that car (filling up))


In the center is the engine hours counter which when the engine is running is also a rev counter. On the left is the light switch.


A space for the cooler and a basket for the empties and new reflectors for safety.


I still have to fix the very wayward steering but I found a new rack and pinion for just under $100 which is a lot better than $600 for the complete assembly. So fix the steering, put on the roof and then find a new project.

God how I love this shit.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The vinyl wrap

As you can see, the body is wrapped and it all went rather well. There really isn't anything interesting to write about here so why don't you just look at the pictures.

I even had enough left over to wrap the steering column.

and the splash plate.


So to finish up I have to replace the rubber trim, trim out the astroturf and install the headlights.
Then the final job will be to fabricate some roof supports and install the roof and we are done !

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The seats

It was now time to restore the seats and the first item on the agenda was to buy some wood for the seat and the seat backs. Although I didn't need an 8 x 4 sheet I knew I was going to be buying one and I knew it wouldn't fit into the SUV. I also knew that dragging the trailer up from the bottom of the yard was going to be tedious and wet. Then in a flash of inspiration I thought "Bonjour mon amis, I have a buggy, why not use it to haul the trailer". Here you can see the cart now earning its keep and saving my back, isn't that neat?


Now with staples in hand along with foam and batting and new wood and aerosol contact adhesive we went to work. For once I am not using the "Royal" we as I discovered when working on the Galaxie, Susie is actually pretty good at upholstery. It took all day and of course multiple trips to Lowes but you don't need to hear all that, you lucky people can just look at the pictures. It actually all went rather well as you can see.


and check out the matching steering wheel cover.



The floor of the cart was originally a fitted rubber mat but some time ago my old buddy JC Terry thought that if I were to wrap the cart in camouflage then maybe I should replace the worn out rubber with astroturf and here is the result.


I still need to glue it down and trim out the edges but I think that it is all going to look rather jolly when it is done. The next big leap forward will be to vinyl wrap the body and that is dependant on Everything Carts actually delivering the product that I ordered (and paid for) weeks ago. Still all in all some serious progress has been made this weekend.

A small rant

There really isn't too much European that I would hold up as shining examples of culture to the rest of the world. Of course it goes without saying that the National Health Service is the jewel in the crown of the Empire but I would also ask you to consider the British Standards Authority whose work has make the life of generations just a little easier.

When I first came to this country I must confess to a certain degree of bemusement as to how hard you made life for yourselves. Take plumbing for example. Now in Europe a fitting is a fitting, you want a P trap, then go and buy one. Yet in the good old US of I have never been able to complete a plumbing job without multiple visits to the Homo Despot. I have lost count of the times that I have carted a complete bath behind me in order to purchase the necessary 3/4 fine tread to 5/8 coarse reducer with a left hand thread to adapt a Kohler faucet to a Standard trap.

As another example let us consider towing hitches and balls. In Europe the ball is 50 mm (or 2 inches to you). Now I don't care what size our balls are but for the love of God make the bastards the same size. I have three trailers and I have three different size hitches, so pray tell me if you can, who the intercourse does this benefit? Certainly not me, in fact I run the risk of, in a moments inattention, of connecting my 2 inch trailer to my 1 7/8 hitch and sending $8000 worth of ATVs hurtling across I581 at 65mph.

You think I exaggerate? Let us consider ammunition. Now you people invented guns and bullets and all that stuff so you would think it would be all so simple and yet....... A 22 calibre mini mag will fit into my PD351 and it will fire and the case will jam in the revolver because it is too small so when you fire it the case splits and makes me cry. I can successfully use a 22 long rifle round but if I am stupid enough to use a long rifle round in my long rifle it falls out of the magazine because the rifle needs a 22 magnum round. It's a 22 calibre round for Christ's sake, the damn thing is supposed to be 0.22 of an inch in diameter, not 0.221 (minimag) or 0.222 (LR) or 0.223 (Magnum).

So it came to pass that I was finally ready to re-upholster the cart seats. Everything was set except that I had run out of staples. Two staple guns and a packet of staples that were clearly not designed to go in either. Bearing in mind everything I have said above and having learned my lesson (537 times) I carefully read on the side of the gun "Use Stanley 3/8 staples or Arrow 3/8 only". Off I troll to our local Lowes and buy my box of 3/8 Arrow staples and I get home and they don't fit. The damned worthless stinking staples don't damn well fit. Now do you get my point? Arrow make wide crown staples and do you know why? So that you and I give up and buy a gun with staples included. Well it didn't work once I realized that you can't hammer staples into particle board I made another trip to Lowes and with my blood pressure at 240 / 120 and my staple gun in hand I ripped open boxes until I found staples that physically fitted into the gun.

People of America I wave my genitals in your face until you form a National Standards Authority with the power to stop the nonsense. Oh and by the way steady as you go in aisle 13 there are staples everywhere.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Bad news and good news

As I mentioned earlier I needed to take out the play in the steering and fairly quickly deduced that it was in fact the steering box. Most of the forums stated that the box was not adjustable and when they were shot they were shot (thanks for nothing EZGO), still hope springs eternal in the human breast and all that bollocks so I took it apart and found that there were no user serviceable parts. I subsequently discovered that a new steering box retails at $600 so you will understand why I am typing this whilst sitting on the commode. A little later I found that some of the play was due to the fact I had failed to tighten up any of the wheel lugs, but it is still crap. As it happens I am kind of OK with this as there is a golf cart Mr Fixit down the road so I think I will give the whole problem to him.
On a more positive note I did install a tachometer and hours run meter and they work fine so tonight wasn't a complete jizzfest. While testing the tacho it occurred to me how excruciatingly annoying a 2 cycle engine sounds. If you have never heard one then play this 100 times.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Getting closer

I didn't blog yesterday because I worked until dark and not only did I not have enough light to take photographs I didn't have enough strength to press the button on the camera.
Still as you can see I got the nose back on so it is starting to look more like a cart and less like the retarded granny that you keep in a closet when the neighbors call. I got a fair amount of filler on it and also a fair amount of the loathsome block sanding done. Although it is going to be vinyl wrapped (as opposed to painted) I still want the filler to be as flat as possible so I have another few nights of work ahead.

I also got the new clutch on. This was the reason that I was working so late. For some sick reason the designers at EZGO placed the rear axle just close enough to ensure that the clutch will not slide off the crankshaft. When I first did this the engine, complete with clutch, was on he shop floor which was just as well because I had Susie stand on the engine whilst I bounced up and down on the wrench to twist the clutch off the shaft. If the engine had not been seized I don't see how we could have got it apart. I had to put the old clutch back on as I needed it to start the engine and the new one had not arrived. Anyway I discovered the 57 ways that you cannot remove the clutch before I realized that if I undid the bolt that holds the engine frame to the chassis I could then use the trolley jack to raise the engine the 3 inches necessary to clear the axle. The result is the new clutch below.


And you can see how damned close it is to the axle.
A little while ago I decided that constantly dicking around with a 25 year old carburetter was not going to work so I invested in a new one. I fitted that last night and here is the result.

To you this is just a vid, however to me this is huge, this is monumental, this is what it must feel like giving birth. It lives and it breathes. Now I need to take a moment and smile whilst I reflect on just how worthwhile this gestation has been.

I still have to adjust the carburetter and frankly I feel that the advice to run a first tank of 40:1 may have been incorrect as there is oil everywhere. I also discovered that the steering has got more than plenty of slack but it ran for a mile or so last night and that is good. The rest is just cosmetics. Now if you will excuse me I am going to watch the video again.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

A lifted cart.

I found a 5 inch lift kit on Ebay and it went rather well. As the frequent reader will know, it was

a matter of necessity but in any case I do like the chunky look of the 22 inch tires on the 8 inch rims.
I think that the next step will be to bolt the nose back on (now that it will fit) and then I can get on with the filling and sanding.


When I get bored with that, and I surely will, I have a carburetter to replace as well as the drive clutch. Then the cart will be running under its own power and I am left with the cosmetics.
Ah the end is in sight.