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My two 701’s and my 702 out for some Fall air today! One day before Halloween! 🎃 The DePauw University McKim Observatory on the circle in front of my house has an Open House tonight! DePauw post: Saturn and the Andromeda Galaxy at McKim Observatory tonight! Friday, 30 October 2026 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm. If the sky stays clear enough, we will be looking at Saturn and the Andromeda Galaxy at this dark moonless Open House. For your visit, please note the historic building is not ADA compliant. The access to the building is a set of stairs up from street level, then three more steps up into the building. Inside, the access to the second floor is by a wooden spiral staircase with a conventional steepness. Also note that while McKim is an excellent example of a historic observatory, it lacks the modern convenience of a restroom. Parking is in the residential neighborhood. During your visit to our historic observatory, please refrain from touching the antique instruments. McKim Observatory Open Houses are Free!

Something got caught in the gear teeth. Open it up because you can't break it any more than all ready broke. Interested to know what let go.

While you have the transmission out, check the mounting plate for cracks.

A couple pictures of this week's work in our Ky woods. The camper after we dropped it down the hill and got it back up the hill to the Mrs 8n approved level spot: A shot of the storage shed and the new camp bath house. The original position of the camper was just out of the left side of the picture. Oh, yea - the camper's toung jack caster wheel has been replaced with a foot. That, and the four stabilizing jacks on the trailer will go a long way to prevent the 'runaway trailer' syndrome we had the other day.

I got the wiring to my '72 C10's ignition switch wire harness reassembled today. I located the Packard 56 terminals at the local NAPA store and ended up ordering a roll over crimping tool from Summit Racing. They are selling it under the Painless brand. Works well. The crimp looks just like the factory crimp. It passed the smoke test when I hooked up the battery.

A 4 pinion transmission is VERY different from the heavy duty 8 pinion version.

Today I finished my high voltage battery certification class. I got a 100% on the test, so I officially know all the various ways to vaporize myself working on e-lectric cars.

I have used those aluminum welding rods you can do with a blow torch. Mapp gas works better than propane IMO. Although I've never tried it for sealing a gas tank

We've begun the construction of the building. Yesterday we moved all 7 of the heavy boxes across the yard with Cinnamon Horse and the black trailer. We opened and reinspected all materials. All fasteners, framing, and brackets were separated and laid out. Today we began by making the whole roof. Added the first vertical section of the legs and all the cross braces possible. There's a slight lean away from the picture taking position here so we got some paracord and tent cords and tied the frame to the ground at 3 places. Tomorrow we'll continue with adding more screws and then the lower section of the side legs. We've decided to order good quality properly fitting metal roofing instead of using the supplied small thinner multiple pieces. For a few hundred dollars investment we'll have a much stronger build and far less possibilities for roof leaks with the better fasteners and no horizontal seams.

Nope. I just need to know they're heavier than before

Cinnamon Horse has been happily helping do some yahd projects.

314H is officially ready for snow duty. Weights painted and installed.

I know the WH isn’t a bulldozer (no I don’t) Just driving around looking at flowers (no I wasn’t) So there I was pushing railroad ties with my GT-1600 when it made a weird noise, moved forward another foot and then she went into “infinite neutral mode” . Towed her into the ER and the hubs are good, the trans drive pulley and keyway are good and of course the fluid is clean/full. Jack up and it makes some weird and horrible noises when it’s spun. And one time it actually locked up. Have a few (4 spares) transmissions here so it’ll get a new trans. Busted one is the original 1” axle unit with 4 pinions. I’ll install a trans with a 1-1/8” axles and 8 pinions.

Couple side shots from from today…right before the transmission went ka-pow!