750SX – Completed and a lot of fun

I ended up having to order and of course wait yet another week on that woodruff key. In case you missed it review my last entry regarding this project. After I got that everything else was smooth sailing There actually wasn’t a single snag in reassembly. Here are the reassembled pictures:

12-Sep-2015 04:04, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250
12-Sep-2015 04:04, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200
12-Sep-2015 04:04, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
 
12-Sep-2015 04:04, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320
12-Sep-2015 04:04, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 400
12-Sep-2015 04:03, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.167 sec, ISO 400
 

The only problem was once I got it all back together it wouldn’t start. Excited, I set up the camera to record the first start after the tear down, all that video ended up netting was about 60 seconds of engine cranking.

A bit discouraged I check all the obvious things – spark, fuel to the carburetor, nothing obvious. I gave it a shot of WD-40 and that didn’t do the trick. After a lot of angst I finally got it to light off with just a tiny snort of premix, and it ran great. Of course I wasn’t videoing that round, but whatever. I did get video of the 2nd startup:

In addition between the last post and the current one Dad came to Minnesota and bought the family a present:

So with Debra and the new Yamaha in tow, we went to the lake the next day. I had full faith in my capabilities, but I am afterall getting fat so I figured better safe than sorry. I sent Debra out to float around on the Yamaha while I got ready and went out on the stand up. After tossing it in the lake I pulled the hood to make sure I didn’t introduce any massive hull leaks during the project, since I didn’t I went to fire it off. Crank crank crank crank crank… seriously? I waved Debra in since I didn’t have adequate tools with me to get gas down the carb horn. We went home and I did a bit of research. It would appear that the Kawasakis are a bit notorious for hard starting and I shouldn’t waste time trying to “fix” it but rather just put on a primer. So that’s what I did.

12-Sep-2015 11:15, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 160
12-Sep-2015 11:15, Panasonic DMC-ZS7, 3.3, 4.1mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 125
 

The primer solves the issue 100%. I have to give it a couple snorts at the beginning of each day then it starts and runs like a top for the remainder of the day – very SkiDoo like. So we went back out.

Debra went out floating on the couch again and I had better luck leaving shore this time. I floated around a bit, trying to remember how to run the stand-up, not that I ever knew how in the first place. Things went well, the ski ran well and I was happy. We meandered our way back to shore, that day wasn’t meant for playing.

Here a couple of weeks (and 1 AC/DC concert) later I went back out today. I spent probably 40 minutes aboard the ski and burned a good 3-4 gallons of gas. It’s a ton of fun, running great and this project is a wrap. I’m not sure where I stand on the remaining annoyances of the ski, those being the minor hull problems, the crank bearings that are no doubt in need of replacement, and the borderline compression. I truly do have other things to worry about in my life – we’ll see how eager I get over the winter to get back on it and judge then. For now, it’s in the books.

750SX – The Bounce, days 3 and 4 (mostly)

After waiting ages for my parts to not come I just reordered them. I got everything torn down and started cleanup. Everything is going pretty well there (see gallery) although the end bearings definitely need to be replaced. It’s not going to happen, but it needs to happen. Such is life. Maybe next teardown.

Last night the case halves were resealed, tonight was the night to be dedicated to putting everything back together. I got hit with a roadblock at my very first part:

 

The one on the left is the wrong size – picked up from Ace. Debra hopefully can scour one up at a local Kawi dealer tomorrow so that the train isn’t railroaded for another week.

Sigh. Anyway, here are pictures related to the rest of the progress that has taken place since the last check-in:

29-Aug-2015 17:27, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.035 sec, ISO 1000
 
29-Aug-2015 17:27, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.043 sec, ISO 1600
 
29-Aug-2015 17:28, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 250
 
29-Aug-2015 17:31, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 500
 
29-Aug-2015 17:32, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.035 sec, ISO 640
 
01-Sep-2015 19:29, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.009 sec, ISO 400
 
01-Sep-2015 19:29, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.026 sec, ISO 400
 
01-Sep-2015 19:29, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
 
01-Sep-2015 20:01, Motorola XT1060, 2.4, 4.499mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 500
 

Dirty Thrills | 1995-2015 | RIP

Mud racing became part of my family’s DNA in 1993 courtesy of my brother in law Chad and his silly yellow Ramcharger with “big tires.” Things went into full swing in 1995, I was too young to drive my Dad’s procurement, but not too young to rename it from Tsunami to Dirty Thrills. Thus begins an era of my family participating in and volunteering in Interior Racing Association mud drags.

There were a lot of noteworthy events and also changes in Dirty Thrills 20 years with us starting with the color change of the 15×15 steelies from Caterpillar yellow to glossy black. The truck won more state championships than I can remember, plenty of them ousting myself in Wild Thing.

I’m aware of at least 7 pilots although I’m sure there are some that I’ve forgotten. It was always powered by a cast iron small block Chevy, starting with a 327, eventually becoming a 350 as a matter of circumstance then dialing the 383 with aluminum Eagle heads after Tundra Terror brought forth a challenge to its reign.

In 20 years I don’t recall a single season it missed. I would guess the number of IRA sponsored races that the truck wasn’t a participant in those 20 seasons could be counted on 2 hands, maybe less. There is no questioning that it is the most dedicated and decorated vehicle in IRA history. I only recall seeing the truck *stuck* in the mud 1 time, coincidentally in its final day of racing.

The final trip through the mud happened on the last race, last class, last round of the 2015 season. Max was driving and competing against only Allan in the Tundra Terror that day. Max had a smoking run through the fast pit but a bad exit.

Allan should have lost on the technicality (out of bounds) but actually even lost heads up. Dirty Thrills sealed the deal the same way it always has, consistency 1st, fast 2nd.

Dirty Thrills began an era for my family, and a part of our lifestyle that we’ll never be able to shake. Thanks Dirty Thrills.

If you read this and have any corrections, memories, or comments of your own about Dirty Thrills please drop a line here.

Dell Bluetooth 365 on Windows 10

I’m desperately waiting for my parts from Short Block Technologies so that I can get going on the 750sx project. The good news is their ridiculously slow service/shipping gave me all of last weekend to try to get the Bluetooth working properly on my trusty old Latitude E4200. I was at the verge of just buying a new laptop, but I really, really, really hate spending money on portable computers in 2015. I hated it in 2010, I wish they’d just die already. To make matters worse my mom let me borrow her modern Latitude 7350 – it made me beyond the shadow of a doubt not want to buy anything new.

Thus I spent no doubt a good 4 hours or so troubleshooting/uninstalling/fiddling/thissing/thatting the Bluetooth device and software on my trusty old beast. There are a few forum posts indicating this and that, try Lenovo software, try Broadcom’s update, try old drivers in compatibility mode. It all sucked.

Backing up a step it’s worth outlining the symptoms – after the Win10 upgrade both my Microsoft Sculpt Bluetooth mouse and my Microsoft Curve Bluetooth keyboard worked somewhat, but the features weren’t right. I unpaired and discovered no ability to re-pair.

All of my searching led me here – a forum post more about Windows 8, but similar problem. The solution is to use some older Lenovo software.

No compatibility, no BS, it just worked. I did have to unpair then re-pair when finished. Also at the end of the install it did indicate failure, but that is apparently not the case.

Quick link: http://tinyurl.com/b8fptwr

Now back to being angry about my missing boat parts.