Brake progress

Since the last blog entry, the front brakes were connected correctly. I still need an 8-32 nut to bolt the flexible cable strap down with but that's something to get on my next shopping expedition. 

The back brake lines are another story. I didn't feel like bending a complex line for the back brakes so I bent a really simple line. It is meant to be replaced with the correct line. Whether it will be is anybody's guess as there's nothing as permanent as a temporary solution. 

The truth is that I've had the first Covid shot and now the second. After the first shot I was very tired. Now it's possible to do little things then I'm exhausted and so it has been for the last 4 days.

Having got the lines in place, it was time to put fluid in. That way it will be possible to move the bus a little. Putting the vacuum pump on the lines gave me a puzzle - there was no fluid coming through the bleed screw. Eventually that was traced to the holes in the bleed screws being stuffed full of junk. That was resolved by twiddling a 3/32 drill bit in the holes by hand. Both front bleed screws were full of sand or something similar.

Bleeding the side furthest from the master cylinder I got 100ml of fluid out fairly swiftly then a mix of fluid and bubbles. That was probably air leaking in around the bleed screw. The other side pretty well bled itself. Plenty fluid gushed out when the bleed screw was removed. Whether it's now wise to bleed the other side again, I'm not sure. In the end the screw was reinserted and the bleeding process done again with the bleeder but with little effect. The now half-empty reservoir was topped up again.

The back brakes never had any attention. I was just feeling way too tired and the ground below was heavily coated with yellow pollen. That was not conducive toward working on the back brakes. 

- at this point blogger refused to save any further text so I lost a lot of text. Perhaps it's time for a new blogging platform? On the other hand, given the vast number of readers this blog gets, perhaps a notebook might be better -

So having got the front brakes into a position where it's time to move onto the back brakes but there was just one little task first. The caps on the ends have always been missing. In order to avoid a repeat of having to bore the debris out with a drill bit it was time to make some caps. That was actually very easy. Some quarter in clear pex was cut into 1 inch lengths and one end sealed by melting it with a lighter and then stubbing it on some wood. The resultant cap then pushed firmly onto the bleed screw so now there should be no problem.

One of the other things I tried yesterday was aluminium welding. A long time ago I'd bought some 1/8 aluminium welding rods. Sadly they proved too big for my Harbor Freight DC welder. On the packet it said minimum 90A and that welder produces 75 max. Still, I did manage to get some blobby welds that held my test piece of aluminium angle onto my test piece of aluminium plate quite well. Still, it's time to get some 3/32 aluminium rod. The aim is to build a new camera mount for the upper camera. I did buy two sheets of aluminium for this but I probably over-purchased. I realised that since the camera has to be out on a stem, that stem needs either to be flexible or bendable, just in case a tree branch has an argument with it. That way the bus doesn't get bent.

The original idea had been to combine the camera mount with a power intake just in case I put a roof-mounted solar panel. Now it makes more sense to have them separate. That's very doable. The camera was mounted quite high before. This time it can be mounted lower, making use of the existing holes in the bodywork where the cable passes through. The upper point where the camera was mounted can now be the solar panel input.

As mentioned before, it's pollen season. Those with no experience of pine pollen will not realise what a miserable experience it is. Itching, burning eyes, coughing and sneezing - even with antihistamines. The pollen feels gritty in the air and tastes gritty to the tongue. As I walk outside I can feel pollen all around me even though I can't see it. It feels like a mini sandstorm. The ground is stained yellow with pollen and it forms a thick carpet on cars where after a few days it's not possible to see though the car windows.

So, currently I'm dealing with vaccination site pain, itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, runny nose and exhaustion from the vaccination. It all sounds like symptoms of Covid but in reality it's a reaction to what's going on around me.

Work remaining to be done...

1. 1 remaining internal light to install. I did turn the new ones on yesterday and the place looked a lot brighter.

2. Roof vent - this still needs to be done but I need to borrow a stepladder.

3. Marker lights - some are yet to arrive and there's no point in starting until they're all here as I'll need to borrow a stepladder.

4. Upper camera mount - for this I need some 3/32 welding rods and some extra, thin aluminium channel.

5. Windscreen wiper pivot mount. I have the old mount ready to work with but I'm not 100% sure where in the bus it is right now.
6. Second battery - this needs a flame shield to be made and that is going to have to be a really funky shape. That needs plenty under the bus rolling around.

7. Back brake line - I need more brake line to do this but at the moment I'm just going to fill the lines and try to move the bus a few yards into a better location.

8. Window coverings - I have two. I just need to install them, making sure not to damage the electric cables to the marker lights.

9. Paint - this is waiting on the stepladder and the end of the pollen.

10. Reflective tape - this is waiting for the paint to be finished.

11. Backup lights - one is the wrong kind and the other is rusted solid. Either both need to be replaced or the rusted one replaced by another that's the wrong kind and a collar installed in order to make the new backup lights fit properly.

There might be more work to do but that's what I can think of immediately.