One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
Dale Carnegie
I was very happy this week to welcome Dino back to the project for a brief visit. Both of my regular readers will remember him as the multi-talented welder/panel-beater/metal magician that did so much to help in the earlier stages of the Marigold Project. (See The Big Stick Up and Weld, Weld, Weld)
He has suggested that the problems with the gear linkages are that the entire linkage is slightly mis-aligned and slightly too long. After a short period spent beneath the beast, accompanied by a light cacophony of cursing, hammering, drilling and groaning, we seem to have some success. All four forward gears and (hooray) reverse can now be found with the gear-stick, although the current blocking plate does not seem to fit correctly so the stick pops out of it's slot sometimes when engaging reverse gear. No matter, if a search fails to turn up the original then I suspect a replacement should not be too hard to find.
We also put our turning, drilling and welding skills to the test and managed to fashion a crude slide-hammer from some retired, left over steel bits that were trying to rust in peace before we disturbed them. This tool should be just the trick to pull out the huge dents in the front of the project. The steel air ducting that is welded to the inside of the front panel make it impossible to push these dents out from the inside.
We tried first with a glued-on disc that was applied with hot-melt glue but it just wasn't strong enough. So we made a new fitting with a threaded screw on the end and made some holes in the steel panel. It works! The hammer just seems to pull the dents out beautifully. Pity about the holes but they shall be filled easily enough when the time comes. So ends a day of varied successes - thanks again Dino!
Thanks for stopping by
CooP
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