Neanderpundit

Here’s the balancer in question:

And here’s a copy with lines showing the “starting” and “Ending” position of the woodruff key.

Was hoping to finish assembly tonight, but an overturned truck on the tri-state insured I wouldn’t get home till 8:30. So it’ll be tomorrow. C’est la vie.

The good- best, news, actually, is that assuming she shakes out OK I have a spare vehicle again.

See, I have so DAMNED many people who bring their cars to me to be repaired etc. that it’s often necesary to have a “loaner” car, and now that my sister hs our Honda we were out a loaner for a long time. So until the Honda comes home, the Van is the “loaner” or spare car. It was great to have it to drive. And now that it’s the “loaner” I have a “spare” car, a safety net, that I’ve been nervous about NOT having for quite some time now.

The mech says it’s like a new one. I go to pick it up in a minute.

The harmonic balancer spun on the crankshaft. It was 32 degrees off. The harmonic balancer is what triggers the spark. So though I checked the spark wiht a timing light, there was no way to tell what the trouble was, because since the harmonic balancer’s encoder wheel controls the spark, it bears the same relationship with the spark/time position. SO though my timing light showed the spark occurring at the correct position on the balancer, it was in a totally WRONG orientation on the crankshaft.

No, nobody had any idea how it happened. Pictures will follow. The mechanic was confirming the timing chain (which was flawless- 288,000 miles on pure synthetic oils has kept the inside of the engine simon-pure) and found the balancer problem by accident. He considers himself lucky to have found it at all. He was about to give up and throw up his hands. he cut me a deal on the repair costs because he considered it a mission, after a while.

Anyway, I’m gonna drive the van another day, so i can go drive the truck around here 50, 60 miles close to the house before I take it on the road.

This is taking a big bite out of my credit, but it’ll be good to have the old girl home again.

Update: She’s home.

Ahhh.

Runs good. Lots of little new noises I need to address. Mostly squeaky idler pulleys.

As you watch the treatment of Cesar Laurean in the media, pay careful attention to what you see.

The media is anxious ot find reasons to demonize servicemen, and this is the kind of bad apple that they LOVE.

See, Nam was a widely unpopular war- and the media didn’t have to do a THING, the filthy hippies did their job for them. Now, it’s unpopular for even the most left wing to speak ill of or not support the troops (if you support the troops you have to support their mission) but the media will be able to turn this ship around, if they can find enough Cesar Laurean types.

Just like the coverage of Roman Catholic priests who molest- (there isn’t any greater incidence of molesters among priests as the general public, it’s just REPORTED more) there are a lot of stories about men who kill women and disapear. And most are walking around, free men- but this one is getting play because they were both military, and that serves the agenda of the fourth estate.

Sunday, 60 minutes had a story on the Congo, where the teasers (I was listening on the radio, so I didn’t see the show, just heard it) were written as if “ohmygod, the vets are coming home and beating their wives” or at least that’s the way it sounded to me. THe actual story was brief and played badly, and if you missed it, you probably came away with the impression that we had a lot of psychos coming home from war.

Watch and learn. THis is how they tried to take away our guns. THis is how they succeed in being a nanny state. Don’t let it happen. As my friend Pascal says, habitual silence about this shit, constitutes approval of it.