A dusty little corner of the Internet: electronics, computer hardware and software, general aviation, 1980's Mopars, and related sundry.
The Daytona: May 23, 2008
Posted in Automotive on May 23, 2008.
Last night/this morning I finally fixed a few pressing issues. One was the boot on the driver's inner CV joint had chewed through itself a while ago and I've been meaning to put a new one one there for some time. I discovered that the Driveshaft Shop Level 3 axles have the tripods welded to the shafts, so they have to be taken apart from the outer CV end. Also, the inner joints have some kind of fiber reinforced plastic cap that seems to be there to keep the tripod in the tulip housing. The problem is the boot seals to the cap and the cap seals to the tulip with a rubber seal. On the other axle, grease is coming out between the cap and the tulip, so I am going to have to deal with that at some point.
The big project was replacing the shift fork pads on the 1-2 and 3-4 forks. I've been limping 3rd gear along for over a year now, as I cheezed it pretty bad on a hard shift one day but it was still usable. A week or so ago I did the same to 2nd gear, rendering it useless. I hoped it was just the pads and so I bought some new ones. Thankfully, that's all it was. The trans looked clean inside, though the sprags for 3rd and especially for 2nd gear are pretty chewed up. It shifts great now, so I am not going to worry about it.
Finally, both of the outer tie rod ends are so sloppy that they have about 1/2" of play now. They are only a few years old, so no more Moog suspension parts for me. I got the more expensive ones from NAPA (Spicer I think). Same brand as the new ball joints that replaced the failed Moog joints and are holding up well.
NEdit
Posted in Computing on May 22, 2008.
"NEdit is a multi-purpose text editor for the X Window System, which combines a standard, easy to use, graphical user interface with the thorough functionality and stability required by users who edit text eight hours a day. It provides intensive support for development in a wide variety of languages, text processors, and other tools, but at the same time can be used productively by just about anyone who needs to edit text." Features include:
The Daytona: April 23, 2008
Posted in Automotive on April 23, 2008.
Still my daily driver. Been collecting some odds and ends that should hopefully help the spool department: A Turbos Unleashed cast log header and Turbonetics T03/T04E hybrid single ball bearing turbo with a "Super 50" compressor and a Stage II exhaust turbine in a .63 A/R housing attached to a Turbos Unleashed 3" swing valve (whew). The header, housing, and swing valve are all ceramic thermal coated to keep temps down and gas velocities high. The turbo flange on the header is larger than it should be, so I will likely need to port the housing flange somewhat.
The Super 70 and ported exhaust manifold that is in there now will end up in the CSX once I get a new cylinder head for it. Trouble is the CSX needs to be running before I put this setup in there....
The CSX: April 6, 2008
Posted in Automotive on April 06, 2008.
Well it's been about a year and a half since I drove the car. This weekend I finally got a chance to tear into it. I pulled the head and tore it completely down. This crappy reman head is pretty screwed-up. The three rear coolant jackets have been ground out and rewelded at some point. There is a small crack between one of the forward jackets and the chamber. The cam journals are pretty chewed-up too, so I think this head is done. Too bad too because it has tight guides and fairly new valves. The plan is to use the original head that came off this car when I got it back in 1998, which appears to have been junkyard TBI roller cam head as the exhaust valves are pretty burnt up. It also has some small cracks starting in the rear jackets, but they are not threatening yet and can be relieved. The guides are worn as well and so it needs a complete rebuild....
Oil Filters Revealed
Posted in Computing on January 25, 2008.
The old Oil Filter Study page has been replaced by a new article: Oil Filters Revealed. It has received a major update to bring it inline with the current market, lots of new pictures, and some completely different filters as well. Many weeks of research went into this one.
Misterhouse
Posted in Computing on December 18, 2007.
Misterhouse is an open source home automation program. It's fun, it's free, and it's entirely geeky. Written in Perl, it fires events based on time, web, socket, voice, and serial data. Perl subroutines and objects are used to give a powerful programming interface. Features include:
debian-helper-scripts
Posted in Computing on December 02, 2007.
debian-helper-scripts is a set of tools to help with the maintenance of a Debian system. It is basically a package of scripts (Perl and Bourne-shell) that I generally install on any Debian system that I maintain. They are:
Packages
- debian-helper-scripts_0.12_amd64.changes
- debian-helper-scripts_0.12_all.deb
- debian-helper-scripts_0.12.tar.gz
- debian-helper-scripts_0.12.dsc
Note that these archives are out of date and no longer available.
Debian on the Xbox
Posted in Computing on November 07, 2007.
Below are a series of Debian packages specific for the Microsoft Xbox. Their purpose is to assist upgrades from Xebian 1.1.4, which is based on a rather old version of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 "woody". These packages allowed me to upgrade my Xebian installation to Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 "etch", with some additional effort. Here is an approximation of the steps required to install Debian on an Xbox:
