Crankin' It Up

This week's Crank Up is a comedy double of Harry Lauder and Billy Murray. Harry is having a grand time before heading home after an evening with his drinking buddies, and though it sounds like a lot of fun I am afraid I would have to think about my head in the morning. Maybe I 'guess and fear' too much. A Wee Deoch And Doris was recorded on October 18, 1911.

Mr. Murray offers some good advice in his Vaudeville presentation, but he has me worried about the poor guy who got his whiskers trapped in the street car cable. Billy recorded this obscure classic on July 15, 1907.

Not My Victrola

'Turn On The Heat' is one of many great songs form the early talkie, 'Sunny Side Up.' FuzzBear posted this version of the song on You Tube, and it is played on his Orthophonic machine. You should look up the movie if you have never seen it. The scene featuring this song is really quite incredible, and the movie is a real 'Upper.'

Bloomin' Update

You Can Do Better Than This!

I went out behind the barn a few nights ago to try the July E-Postal Target, and with careful aiming I used nearly ninety shots to make my points. A perfect score would be eight shots. I went out back again tonight and used different tactics. I snapped off six rounds as quickly as I could at the area of the target I wanted to hit, checked the target, reloaded, and shot again. I made the points I needed with seventy-two shots, and that is enough improvement that I have sent this one off for scoring.

Now, follow the link above, print your target, and show me up! The deadline to enter is midnight on July 28.

Vintage Machinery Surprise

GSC, one of our regular visitors has graciously shared some of his family photos from the Oxnard, California area around 1930. These are great glimpses of farm mechanization. The first photo is a baler at work. GSC speculates that his grandfather cobbled this up from a stationary baler, and I agree that it is probably a 'conversion' baler. Compare it to the ad from a 1921 Thresherman magazine, and you can see that a power source and platforms for the workers have been added. This vintage of baler required that two people be present just to tie the baling wire around each bale. I wish we could see how the hay was picked up to be fed into the machine.

This is GSC's grandfather; he obviously was a talented tinkerer.

In this photo we see four wagons very heavily loaded with sugar beets.

This is a thresher for dry lima beans. Harvesting crops used to require lots of workers with an iron constitution. You worked long days in hot dusty conditions for your pay. Old timers have told me that working on a stationary baler with moldy hay was the very worst job on the farm.

Thank You, GSC for the great photos. Is this land still being farmed, or has it been developed?

UPDATE!

Read the comment from GSC for news about this farm land.

Not My Victrola

Here is a great number for lifting your mood on Monday! Click on the link to read KSPM's extensive notes about this record.

Monday Again!

Back to the old grind!

Poets' Corner

fate is unfair

in many places here and
there
i think that fate
is quite unfair
yon centipede upon
the floor
can boast of tootsies by the score
consider my
distressing fix
my feet are limited
to six
did i a hundred
feet possess
would all that glorious
footfulness
enable me
to stagger less
when i am
overcome by heat
or if i had
a hundred feet
would i
careering oer the floor
stagger
proportionately more
well i suppose
the mind serene
will not tell
destiny its mean
the truly
philosophic mind
will use
such feet as it can find
and follow calmly
fast or slow
the feet it has
where eer they go
archy

From: the lives and times of archy and mehitabel by don marquis, doubleday and doran

Weekend Workout

We don't have to tinker under the hood nearly as often as we used to now that we all drive fuel injected cars, but we still have to pay attention to symptoms. You can still fix problems on cars today, and it will save lots of money in labor expenses. Our car is a 2000 Chevy Astro, and the first fuel pump began to fail at a little over 50,000 miles. The symptoms are pretty clear when the fuel pump is failing. The car cranks too long when you want to start, and if you turn on the key, let the fuel system pressure up, and then crank, the engine will start and run fine. I think what is happening is the foot valve leaks back when the car is at rest. When the foot valve dies completely the pump will not work, so you need to change the pump, and it is inside your gas tank.

The fuel pump lasted for over 110,000 miles this time, but it was getting progressively worse all week, so today I was under the car. Even though I have done this task three times before, I looked up instructions on the internet to see if there were any good tricks to make it easier. Here are the steps from WikiPedia, with my comments in parentheses.

0. make sure gas is almost empty, easy to handle. (Plan ahead so you have the tank below half and it will be fairly easy to handle. We had ours down to a third, and it was no problem.)

(Work outside on a paved surface. Jack up your car on the driver's side and set it securely on jack stands. Have it up high enough that the gas tank can be slid out from under the car. This will be about as high as you can jack the car with a 1 1/2 ton car jack. Plan your moves so you are not under the car until the jack stands are secure. Don't get crushed; Please.)

1. remove gas fill tube, 2 screws at cas cap and 1 bolt at frame. (Loosen the clamp holding the gas fill tube to the tank and slide the clamp out beyond the emergency brake cable.)

2. loosen 2 strap bolts, have floor jack with 1"X 6" board atop it ready under tank to support lowering about 6 inches from ground. (The tank will be very awkward to balance on top of a jack, and you have a big drop at the end of the process with this method. Make two stacks of 2" lumber scraps; one ahead of the center of the tank, and one behind. Shim this stack up close to the tank and unscrew the strap bolts. They are a good three inches long and will set the tank on your stacks of lumber. Lift one end and remove a board; repeat on the other end; etc.)

(Crawl under the car so you can look over the tank next to the driveshaft. There are three lines from the pump with retainers holding them to metal lines. Tap on them to shake out the dirt, and carefully squeeze the nylon catch, then wiggle the flexible line off of the metal line. The nylon retainers should remain on the metal line. One line does not have a separate retainer; just squeeze it and wiggle the lines apart. The first line you open may have pressure, maybe not if the pump leaked back. Be careful not to get fuel in your eyes.)

(The filler pipe has a hose affair which sticks into the tank several inches. Wrestling this out of the tank is the worst part of the job, and also is your best chance to contaminate the tank with dirt. Putting it back in at the end of the job is easy.)

3. remove 2 wire plugs, one may need to be replaced, new one in box with fuel pump. (The wire plugs are in the middle of the top of the tank, so you will remove them after the tank is down.)

4. remove fuel line, 2 have internal clamps, toss and get new ones, two diferent sizes. old will not work. (You already did this and you can re-use the retainers if your were careful.)

5. lift tank off hanger that are towards passenger side, lower with jack. (Ease the tank out, back end first after you have it on the ground. Watch your wiring in case GM was stingy. I had plenty of slack.)

6. pull out from under truck. leave in plastic protection pan.

7. remove pump , screw driver on snap ring, sides straight up. (I think they are trying to move the retaining ring by beating on it with a screwdriver. This does not work well because there is a heavy rubber ring under it that soaks up any impact. Use two sets of Vise-Grips to walk the retainer around. It is easy and less frustrating.)

(In this photo the Vise-Grip is putting the retaining ring on. Two Vise-Grips will easily walk this ring either way for you.)

(Lift out your old pump and compare it to your new one. Install the new rubber ring on top of the tank, ease in the new pump, and re-install the retaining ring.)

8.install new one. remember o-ring:-)

9.reverse process.

(Do this job in daylight and do not use a trouble light around an open gas tank. I prefer to use an LED flashlight around anything flammable. Keep smokers away.)

<

Weekend Steam

These old Thresherman magazines are mighty brittle and I fret a bit every time I pull the stack out for one of these posts. This issue has a pretty serious tear, but it still makes a nice picture. I think the engine powering the thresher is a Case, and I wonder what has happened to the operator's platform. Case engines usually had a bunker with a water tank below and coal above. There probably was some kind of mishap that damaged the bunker, but no-one in this scene is available for comment.