We had 15 or so friends over for Thanksgiving yesterday. Absolutely wonderful evening! We have five hundred pictures to sort through and a bellies-full of delicious food to sleep off. The one will get sorted out right after the other.

Steve's parents are here and we are having a great time. Everyone in the house seems to have caught a little bit of a flu- Jocelyn hit hardest, but we are still enjoying each other's company and enjoying some un-seasonally cool weather. Air temps this week have been in the high 70s instead of mid-hi-80s. It is nice. Cloudy skies have also made for excellent sunsets.

I'm still battling my Landcruiser transmission- mostly neglecting it, at this point, as working under a car with a heavy beast of a tranny is hard. Doing it with flu symptoms is too hard for me to do right now.

Labels: landcruiser, sunset, tamarindo, visitor, weather

What a frustrating day of working on the Cruiser!

I got to it later than I wanted, around 11am instead of "early". Enjoyed some early success pulling a bolt that had given me grief earlier. Note: a good trick to getting the top bolts out of the bellhousing is to use a very long extension (I used a 24" and a 14" together) so that your ratchet is positioned behing the transmission, where you have room to turn it. I don't know how I'm going to get it back together yet... but that should be easier than apart based on the dirt/rust that was helping hold the bolt in.

After that early victory, it was all downhill.

My Cruiser started life as a gasoline model but was converted to a turbo diesel by a previous owner. The conversion was done pretty well, but every now and then I come across evidence that it could have been done a whole lot better. Today, for example, I learned that when they positioned the motor a little further back than normal, it creates a situation in which you can't actually get the transmission out because the bellhousing contacts the floor of the car. I tried pushing/pulling/twisting/praying/swearing... for about 3 hours. No dice.

I tried pulling the motor mounts off of the motor to lower it an inch or two to allow some more leeway. No dice.
I tried jacking the front of the motor up, but was foiled by the fact that the rear-bias means that the back of the head of the motor hits the firewall of the truck, preventing any significant tilting.

After literally hours of trying various approaches, I finally gave up. Right about then, my mechanic buddy (at whose shop I was working) made some free time and came over to help. Between the two of us, we managed to get the tranny far enough from the motor to loosen the bolts holding the clutch disc. Eventually that, and a lot of two people pushing/pulling HARD we managed to separate the two parts. Wow, that transmission is HUGE. I'll snap some photos by daylight.

Got the disc, pressure plate, and T/O bearing out and I was instantly dismayed to see that all three were in pretty good shape.
Dismayed? Yes.

You see- the whole reason to tear into this beast of a transmission was to eliminate a noise that has cropped up. The thing is- the noise is only really noticeable in San Jose- which is at higher altitude and also cooler. For no good reason, I thought that the noise -which can only be described as metal bouncing off of metal in a clangy and fairly random way with a fast pace- was likely the T/O bearing. Ok, it isn't really no good reason: The T/O bearing pushes on some thin metal teeth on the pressure plate. The sound is an awful lot like the noise of something pinging along on those teeth. And the noise goes away when the clutch is engaged, but is present when the clutch is out. I don't *think* that the noise ever happend unless we were actually moving.

So it wasn't completely silly to assume that the clutch is involved. After all, if it were the diff or the u-joints, or something in the transfercase, it might still rattle/clank/ping while the truck is moving, even with the clutch engaged. But it doesn't.

Back to my dismay: I had really hoped that the T/O bearing or the clutch disc were broken/bent/sticking or otherwise plainly demonstrating a condition that would make the noise. They didn't/aren't/don't. Grrr.

The pressure plate looks nearly new. The pilot bearing spins easily and quietly. The throw-out bearing (T/O bearing) spins quietly and easily (though it does look pretty dirty). The clutch disc is a little thin, but looks very good otherwise.

So I've spent two afternoons of pretty hard work to discover that I've been working on parts that are very, very unlikely to be the parts that need fixing. And I've got at least 1 more afternoon in front of me to put it all back together.

If you've replaced a clutch, you're probably chuckling at me right now. Thanks.

You're probably also thinking "Hey, at least you've got a new disc/plate/bearings and won't have to tear this down again for 15 or 20 years." You would be totally right, if the new disc and plate that I bought were the correct parts. They aren't. For those of you with the luxury of a Napa or Toyota dealer in your home town.... I envy you. Tomorrow I'll drive an hour to Liberia, where I'll then square off with the parts guy at the parts store in a sincere but not very high-odds attempt to exchange the wrong parts for right parts. If I had done this repair in less than 6 days from purchasing the parts, it would be better odds for me. As it stands, I'm hopeful and apprehensive all at once since it has been about 15 days since I got the parts, I'm almost certainly beyond the acceptable timeframe for exchange.

I'm going to further push my luck and try to swap the disc. but _return_ the pressure plate. The T/O and pilot bearings are the right part: Keepers. My old pressure plate actually has less rust than the rebuilt one that they sold me. So keep your virtual fingers virtually crossed for me on Tuesday when I'll try to get money out of the parts store based on a mistake that they made. If you lived in Costa Rica, you would understand my dubious attitude much better, I assure you.

The most perplexing and frustrating part of all is that I still don't know what makes the noise! My new theory is that maybe the rear air locker is involved. See, I haven't gotten the pump squared away yet (been fixing the dang tranmsission, among other things) so the air line is simply blocked off. I'm wondering if the change in altitude between here and San Jose (about 4,000 vertical feet) could allow the air in the locker to expand enough to make it clang and rattle. That, somehow combined with colder weather... it is a pretty unlikely explanation.

More likely is that my tranny has issues. After I get back from the parts store tomorrow I'll clean up the transmission and open it up to see if I find any "obvious" problems (like tiny unicorns, jumping around, poking holes in my synchros and defecating in the gears). I've never opened up a manual transmission before, so I'm not feeling lots of confidence that I'll immediately see something that will solve the issue.... but at least I will have looked. Before somehow hefting that goliath transmission back into place.

I'm also a little concerned about getting things buttoned up- geting it out was tough. Putting it back could be bobs-your-uncle easy, or a trying affair full of pulled muscles and loud explatives. I'm hoping for the former, based on the cosmic fairness principle. I've suffered enough on this particular job, especially since I haven't even fixed anything. Time will tell.

Labels: Costa Rica, landcruiser

Got up at a little before 5:30 today to enjoy a spectacular sunrise as I walked over to a friend's house. We drove out to a residential development that he is doing where we hiked some and rode horses around to enjoy a wonderful morning. Did a little business, which is welcome, but not so much as to detract from the fun.

By 11 I was home, did some yardwork, now we are headed off for a sunset sail/snorkel trip.

So far- a great day!

Labels: Costa Rica, sailing

Just heard that GNR is about to release a new album after a 14 year hiatus.

Because this is a family-friendly blog, I'm not going to expound upon the memories related to Appetite for Destruction (or even Use Your Illusion II).

So we're sitting here, enjoying the fruits of mexican agave cactus, *blasting* music recorded in the late-80s, refusing to feel old, and maybe finally understanding the way people feel about other generation-defining greats.

Getting old(er) sure beats not getting old(er).

Labels: music

We've been enjoying a sudden stop to the rainy season: the last 10 days have been sun sun sun, and not just a little hot as the accumulated moisture in the ground has been making 2 o'clock feel a little like a sauna.

The sunsets have been unbelievable, however, and there have been some nice breezy days.

Yesterday we got a typical November dousing of rain- pretty heavy, not very long duration. Great for all of our plants and a nice indication that the trees and fields will stay green for another week or two.

Also great as I've been procrastinating on the very important job of fixing up our irrigation system at the house. It was never done well, and the last five months of neglect haven't made it any better. If it didn't rain this week I was going to be forced into getting the drip system working at least well enough to keep stuff alive until I could fix it right. Now I can put it off for another week or two, *then* deal with the emergency that I will have ignored. Sort of like the Republican approach to fixing the economy...

Jocelyn seems to be winning her war with the bouganvillia. Her take-no-prisoners pruning approach was the subject of much debate between us, but I've got to concede that the areas in which she has been most aggressive are now the areas that look the best and are probably just about ready to explode in beautiful flowers (which is the only reason to keep that pernicious weed around the yard).

Last weekend we planted four plumeria trees around the yard- they are small now but two are in flower and we can't wait for "someday" when they grow up. We've also got four healthy-looking papaya trees that are coming along, though still a long ways from bearing fruit. I put two Jatropha trees in the ground as well, they are putting out new leaves and appear to be "happy". Our two volunteer tomato plants continue to grow and put out plenty of foliage, but so far no flowers thus no real hopes of fruit (yet!). We've been fertilizing them lackadaisically and with compost, now we are looking at getting some organic fertilizer more directly suited to making plump tomatoes come off of our plant! We take some consolation in that A) these are volunteer plants anyway and we didn't prep the soil at all and B) next year the soil will be much better for whatever we plant there.

As the dry season takes over, we are hoping that the two little tomatoes start cranking out some flowers. If not, ok, we'll just try again!

On the topic of soil- in case you care- I've been dismayed to learn that most of the "soil" in our back yard is really, incredibly, seriously, HORRIBLE. It looks like about two-four inches of mostly-clay is on top of about two or three feet of construction debris/rubble. While digging out a small hole for one of the trees I planted last weekend, most of what I pulled out was broken cinder block and 1-inch sized gravel. Good drainage, at least. But not much there to foster life. At some not-too-distant point we plan to build up some decking/planter beds. Instead of trying to amend the junk that is in the ground, we are planning to pile good soil on top, and plant our plants there. The preponderance of construction waste in the "dirt" helps explain why a large section of our front yard is about 8" sunken compared to the retention wall around it. I imagine that there is no small amount of form-work wood down there, rotting away, and also plenty of void spaces where the dirt is slowly but surely filling in. I only hope that our swimming pool is sitting on slightly more solid ground and that we don't awaken one morning to a new "water feature" spilling out of the front wall of our property.

The surf has been decent, got out twice last week and I'm really noticing the effects of a couple of months or rain. I refer not only to the sand bar being all messed up at my favorite break, but also to the dramatic reduction in paddling strength that I'm feeling out there! Between a long Sunday of gardening and a solid morning of surfing, my body was feeling pretty sore. In a good way.

Louie is back from the body shop! Hurray! And he passed his road test with flying colors. I had to replace one tire because it was worn too thin- the replacement that I got at a used tire shop was overpriced at $20, but got me through the inspection. If I don't sell him soon, I'll probably have to spring for two new tires anyway. Fact is, local "wisdom" has really rubbed off on me on this one and I'm stretching the life of the tires on the that truck to their utmost limit. It's pretty ugly. For the record: Louie is for sale, asking $11,000, 1988 hj60 Landcruiser (6-cyl diesel motor) well-built, well maintained.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, landcruiser, surf, tamarindo, weather

If you haven't done it yet...


GO VOTE!!