04-22-2022, 01:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-12-2022, 11:49 PM by Terry Bentley.)
Chapter 101
Chris just go away and let me sleep in this morning.
Come on Terry, please get up already. I need your help to make sure my kart is put back together the right way. I dont want to make any mistakes. That means you have to get up.
OK fine, I am getting up. Why dont you go into the kitchen and fill up a bowl with Corn Flakes for me. Be sure to put plenty of sugar on top. If there are any strawberries left in the fridge, well put a bunch of them on there first.
I will go do that right after you promise me you are getting up. I know you wont lie to me, but you have say it before I go make your breakfast. I gotta hear it from you first.
Alright, I will get up. I promise. Now get lost already. I immediately pulled the covers over my head wishing this was only a bad dream. I was not anywhere close to getting up yet. It is still way too early. Crap, why did he make me say that? Argh!, This sucks.
It took some effort, but I managed to crawl out of bed. But is was forced. How does he manage to get up so early every day like that? Why do I like to sleep in late all the time when I can?
Haha Terry, your hair is a big mess again. What do you do to make it mop all up like that? Oh here is your cereal. I dont think it has gotten all soggy yet.
Chris had already finished up his bowl and now watching me slurp mine down. He was sitting there drumming his fingers on the table. But did seem to be patent enough to let me eat my cereal in peace. Alright lets hit it Chris. If you want your kart put back together today, lets do it.
Mom made it very clear to Chris that he should help himself with whatever he needed when visiting. She did this so he might feel more at home when spending time over here. Or like this time the whole weekend. Chris took to it immediately. So more like a part time little brother when he is here. But I treat him a lot better than my oldest brother ever did to me.
This again brings back some things I remember learning growing up in church. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". This one verse has nothing to do with religion. It is just how people should treat each other. I wonder where my brothers were hanging out when that lesson was being taught? I think my oldest brother translated this to read, "Do to others before they do to you first".
There is something I had not been that aware of until this weekend. When me and Steve get tired of each other after hanging out too much, he can just head down the street and go home. I am not tired of Chris hanging out this weekend at all. But with him here the whole time, I dont have that luxury like when telling Steve to just go home already.
Since Chris is here to work on his kart, there is nothing for him to do unless I am involved. He cant just take a hike and go back home. He is here for the whole weekend. So I have to keep him occupied or helping out with whatever we are working on.
This is almost like having a real paying job. Well minus the real paying part. I have a job to do. Doesnt matter if I am paid doing specific work at a job or working on something I offered to help with. You make a commitment, then have to follow thru to the end.
So the only thing Chris can do is wait on me until I am ready to help him out. I now see why he wants to get to working on his kart. I also better understand why you have to take care of your guests. Since it is my responsibility and nobody elses but mine. I cant just unload Chris off on someone else just for my convenience.
Hey Chris, you ready to get started on your kart? We might be able to get a lot of it done today. I dont know how close to finished it will be, but should get a bunch taken care of if we didnt overlook too many things.
We headed out to the garage and got started back working on his kart. The frame now has a nice bright shiny paint job. It turned out really well too. Chris chose black since that is the only color I had here to paint it with. The original color was black anyway, so no big deal if we missed a few spots.
The nice deep industrial black gloss enamel looks great of his frame. So there is only one thing left to do. We can now assemble his kart. This time maybe for good. Then hopefully make plans for heading back to the track soon and test to see if everything we did was done right and actually works.
After we got started, Chris took over and focused on putting all of the parts back on his new looking frame himself. A few minutes later, I was only handing Chris tools he was asking for and holding parts while he bolted things together.
This is more or less what Steve used to do when we worked on our project of the week. He didnt know anything about working with metal or lawn mower engines at first, so spent most of the time watching me do the hard stuff. Well it wasnt really that hard to do. Just that he had never worked on anything like them before. His dad is a cabinet maker and wood is what he is more familiar with.
After a while Steve got good at the same things I liked doing after all the watching he did. He was good enough I didnt need to hang over his shoulder when working on something by himself. He sure does not like me asking him questions, like why he is doing something a certain way. Not to mention it distracts him from his concentration.
Watching Chris reassemble his kart, I see he is doing a lot of things exactly the way I showed him when he was learning and taking in everything over the last two weekends. He even made some slight adjustments on how I was doing things myself. Not all of them were just shortcuts, but slight improvements.
We talked about everything as he was putting parts on the frame. I went back over the things that had been covered already when first test fitting all of the pieces.
Late Saturday morning we had his kart completely finished. Well test fitted with all of the components to make something resembling a kart. I went into detail on every nut and bolt. No shortcuts either. I made him do everything the long and hard way and why to do it like that.
The minor adjustments he was making in reassembling were nothing like cutting corners. He chose some different tools to do certain things, and had them ready to assemble the next part getting bolted on.
Some bolts he would run down only with his fingers. then move on to something else. Then go thru and tighten everything that particular tool would fit. But not doing it this way from being lazy. Just being more efficient. I kept watching to make sure he didnt overlook some of those hand tightened bolts.
When Chris started to reassemble the rear axle, I made him stop and pay extra close attention. The bearings were bolted on first then making sure they were not too tight in the flanges and so they could still self align. I also pushed Chris to actually run the lathe by himself. At first he was really nervous and reluctant. But I went thru the motions a couple of times then watched him do most of the work without too much interference from me.
I showed him how to set up a lock collar, first making sure it was pushed back flat against the chuck, then machine the lip off. After the first one, he relaxed and was able to do the rest of them without any problems. But there was still more to do. There is always more to do to do things right.
Next he got to try his luck on the drill press. Since he was only drilling out the small dimpled hole used to tighten the collars with a punch, nothing was really critical. Then I explained to him how to tap out those holes to put another set screw there. He had watched Fish use a tap and die set before, so figured this would be no problem. But he soon found that was not the case here.
The important thing was getting the tap started in straight and not break it off. It is very easy to break especially if there was very much resistance. The easiest way was to keep from breaking is rotate the tap 1/8 to 1/4 turn, back off, breaking the chip, not the tap, then repeat. The only way to learn how to do this is by experience. All of the explaining was useless until he turned the tap himself.
Once the axle slid easily thru all of the bearings, Chris then realized why we did everything the way we did. There was no drag or turning resistance at all. But we did make some alterations for this to work well as it did. Dad had covered all of this with me before.
One other thing my dad suggested to me doing is removing the rubber seals on these rear axle bearings. These particular bearings are LINK-BELT. The steel shield is painted a shade of light blue. It is large and covering over most of the bearing. But a very small and thin rubber seal to retain the grease runs of the inner race.
He told me to wash the bearing out very well. Make sure to use clean gasoline. Preferably white gas if any was left in the container. Then peel off the rubber seal. Reassemble the bearing and only use a thicker oil to lubricate now. Just a few drops after every few races will be fine.
I was thinking this is one time Frank would spin that dry bearing up with an air hose. Make that bearing sing. You know to be sure there is no more contaminants or debris to trash up the races. I think it would be funny to watch that bearing lock up on his finger. Well I would not want that to happen, but might be funny if it didnt hurt so much.
Chris figured everything out from what my dad had originally told me soon as he took an up and close inspection of his bearings. He pried the shield off using a small screw driver, then tore out the seal. After cleaning he carefully tapped the shield back in place. It snapped in perfectly.
Chris had unloaded a few big boxes when arriving Friday afternoon before I had made it home from school. I had not been so nosy yet to see all what he actually picked up. After digging in one of the smaller boxes of parts, he pulled out a brand new Azusa Mark II Vari-hub.
Hey Terry, this cost $2.95. Do you think it was worth that much? Pappy Neal suggested I should buy one of these new. So if this is the Mark II, what did they have before this one? What, like a Mark 1? He followed this with his signature chuckle. This is the only one I have seen they sold in my magazines. Do you think it is that smaller one like used on the Bendix brake?
Probably right about that Chris. Before those super light weight split aluminum racing sprockets with this big hole came out, they were selling one piece steel sprockets with a lot smaller center hole. Like only four bolts to hold it on the hub. That might be the first version.
The kart was now getting closer to being mostly assembled and nearing the time it will be checked off as finished. Chris walked over to the corner of the garage again where his boxes full of new parts was laying on the floor.
This time Chris grabbed the big box, opening it up and pulled out four brand new tires. As he walked back over to his kart, I could just make out the smell of new rubber now lingering in the air.
Hey Terry, is there any special way I need to know about putting the tires on my almost new wheels? I dont know anything about these Go-Power wheels except they are really cool looking. One other thing I noticed is they are super lightweight compared to the old steel wheels off my kart.
No Chris, nothing special that I am aware of. But then again I have never mounted a brand new set of tires before. Do you see any directional arrows on the sidewalls? If not then dont worry about it.
Nope I dont see any arrows on my tires. So I can just mount them any which way, right? What about the whitewalls? Should I put them in or out?
Huh, do what? You actually bought whitewall tires?
Chris just go away and let me sleep in this morning.
Come on Terry, please get up already. I need your help to make sure my kart is put back together the right way. I dont want to make any mistakes. That means you have to get up.
OK fine, I am getting up. Why dont you go into the kitchen and fill up a bowl with Corn Flakes for me. Be sure to put plenty of sugar on top. If there are any strawberries left in the fridge, well put a bunch of them on there first.
I will go do that right after you promise me you are getting up. I know you wont lie to me, but you have say it before I go make your breakfast. I gotta hear it from you first.
Alright, I will get up. I promise. Now get lost already. I immediately pulled the covers over my head wishing this was only a bad dream. I was not anywhere close to getting up yet. It is still way too early. Crap, why did he make me say that? Argh!, This sucks.
It took some effort, but I managed to crawl out of bed. But is was forced. How does he manage to get up so early every day like that? Why do I like to sleep in late all the time when I can?
Haha Terry, your hair is a big mess again. What do you do to make it mop all up like that? Oh here is your cereal. I dont think it has gotten all soggy yet.
Chris had already finished up his bowl and now watching me slurp mine down. He was sitting there drumming his fingers on the table. But did seem to be patent enough to let me eat my cereal in peace. Alright lets hit it Chris. If you want your kart put back together today, lets do it.
Mom made it very clear to Chris that he should help himself with whatever he needed when visiting. She did this so he might feel more at home when spending time over here. Or like this time the whole weekend. Chris took to it immediately. So more like a part time little brother when he is here. But I treat him a lot better than my oldest brother ever did to me.
This again brings back some things I remember learning growing up in church. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". This one verse has nothing to do with religion. It is just how people should treat each other. I wonder where my brothers were hanging out when that lesson was being taught? I think my oldest brother translated this to read, "Do to others before they do to you first".
There is something I had not been that aware of until this weekend. When me and Steve get tired of each other after hanging out too much, he can just head down the street and go home. I am not tired of Chris hanging out this weekend at all. But with him here the whole time, I dont have that luxury like when telling Steve to just go home already.
Since Chris is here to work on his kart, there is nothing for him to do unless I am involved. He cant just take a hike and go back home. He is here for the whole weekend. So I have to keep him occupied or helping out with whatever we are working on.
This is almost like having a real paying job. Well minus the real paying part. I have a job to do. Doesnt matter if I am paid doing specific work at a job or working on something I offered to help with. You make a commitment, then have to follow thru to the end.
So the only thing Chris can do is wait on me until I am ready to help him out. I now see why he wants to get to working on his kart. I also better understand why you have to take care of your guests. Since it is my responsibility and nobody elses but mine. I cant just unload Chris off on someone else just for my convenience.
Hey Chris, you ready to get started on your kart? We might be able to get a lot of it done today. I dont know how close to finished it will be, but should get a bunch taken care of if we didnt overlook too many things.
We headed out to the garage and got started back working on his kart. The frame now has a nice bright shiny paint job. It turned out really well too. Chris chose black since that is the only color I had here to paint it with. The original color was black anyway, so no big deal if we missed a few spots.
The nice deep industrial black gloss enamel looks great of his frame. So there is only one thing left to do. We can now assemble his kart. This time maybe for good. Then hopefully make plans for heading back to the track soon and test to see if everything we did was done right and actually works.
After we got started, Chris took over and focused on putting all of the parts back on his new looking frame himself. A few minutes later, I was only handing Chris tools he was asking for and holding parts while he bolted things together.
This is more or less what Steve used to do when we worked on our project of the week. He didnt know anything about working with metal or lawn mower engines at first, so spent most of the time watching me do the hard stuff. Well it wasnt really that hard to do. Just that he had never worked on anything like them before. His dad is a cabinet maker and wood is what he is more familiar with.
After a while Steve got good at the same things I liked doing after all the watching he did. He was good enough I didnt need to hang over his shoulder when working on something by himself. He sure does not like me asking him questions, like why he is doing something a certain way. Not to mention it distracts him from his concentration.
Watching Chris reassemble his kart, I see he is doing a lot of things exactly the way I showed him when he was learning and taking in everything over the last two weekends. He even made some slight adjustments on how I was doing things myself. Not all of them were just shortcuts, but slight improvements.
We talked about everything as he was putting parts on the frame. I went back over the things that had been covered already when first test fitting all of the pieces.
Late Saturday morning we had his kart completely finished. Well test fitted with all of the components to make something resembling a kart. I went into detail on every nut and bolt. No shortcuts either. I made him do everything the long and hard way and why to do it like that.
The minor adjustments he was making in reassembling were nothing like cutting corners. He chose some different tools to do certain things, and had them ready to assemble the next part getting bolted on.
Some bolts he would run down only with his fingers. then move on to something else. Then go thru and tighten everything that particular tool would fit. But not doing it this way from being lazy. Just being more efficient. I kept watching to make sure he didnt overlook some of those hand tightened bolts.
When Chris started to reassemble the rear axle, I made him stop and pay extra close attention. The bearings were bolted on first then making sure they were not too tight in the flanges and so they could still self align. I also pushed Chris to actually run the lathe by himself. At first he was really nervous and reluctant. But I went thru the motions a couple of times then watched him do most of the work without too much interference from me.
I showed him how to set up a lock collar, first making sure it was pushed back flat against the chuck, then machine the lip off. After the first one, he relaxed and was able to do the rest of them without any problems. But there was still more to do. There is always more to do to do things right.
Next he got to try his luck on the drill press. Since he was only drilling out the small dimpled hole used to tighten the collars with a punch, nothing was really critical. Then I explained to him how to tap out those holes to put another set screw there. He had watched Fish use a tap and die set before, so figured this would be no problem. But he soon found that was not the case here.
The important thing was getting the tap started in straight and not break it off. It is very easy to break especially if there was very much resistance. The easiest way was to keep from breaking is rotate the tap 1/8 to 1/4 turn, back off, breaking the chip, not the tap, then repeat. The only way to learn how to do this is by experience. All of the explaining was useless until he turned the tap himself.
Once the axle slid easily thru all of the bearings, Chris then realized why we did everything the way we did. There was no drag or turning resistance at all. But we did make some alterations for this to work well as it did. Dad had covered all of this with me before.
One other thing my dad suggested to me doing is removing the rubber seals on these rear axle bearings. These particular bearings are LINK-BELT. The steel shield is painted a shade of light blue. It is large and covering over most of the bearing. But a very small and thin rubber seal to retain the grease runs of the inner race.
He told me to wash the bearing out very well. Make sure to use clean gasoline. Preferably white gas if any was left in the container. Then peel off the rubber seal. Reassemble the bearing and only use a thicker oil to lubricate now. Just a few drops after every few races will be fine.
I was thinking this is one time Frank would spin that dry bearing up with an air hose. Make that bearing sing. You know to be sure there is no more contaminants or debris to trash up the races. I think it would be funny to watch that bearing lock up on his finger. Well I would not want that to happen, but might be funny if it didnt hurt so much.
Chris figured everything out from what my dad had originally told me soon as he took an up and close inspection of his bearings. He pried the shield off using a small screw driver, then tore out the seal. After cleaning he carefully tapped the shield back in place. It snapped in perfectly.
Chris had unloaded a few big boxes when arriving Friday afternoon before I had made it home from school. I had not been so nosy yet to see all what he actually picked up. After digging in one of the smaller boxes of parts, he pulled out a brand new Azusa Mark II Vari-hub.
Hey Terry, this cost $2.95. Do you think it was worth that much? Pappy Neal suggested I should buy one of these new. So if this is the Mark II, what did they have before this one? What, like a Mark 1? He followed this with his signature chuckle. This is the only one I have seen they sold in my magazines. Do you think it is that smaller one like used on the Bendix brake?
Probably right about that Chris. Before those super light weight split aluminum racing sprockets with this big hole came out, they were selling one piece steel sprockets with a lot smaller center hole. Like only four bolts to hold it on the hub. That might be the first version.
The kart was now getting closer to being mostly assembled and nearing the time it will be checked off as finished. Chris walked over to the corner of the garage again where his boxes full of new parts was laying on the floor.
This time Chris grabbed the big box, opening it up and pulled out four brand new tires. As he walked back over to his kart, I could just make out the smell of new rubber now lingering in the air.
Hey Terry, is there any special way I need to know about putting the tires on my almost new wheels? I dont know anything about these Go-Power wheels except they are really cool looking. One other thing I noticed is they are super lightweight compared to the old steel wheels off my kart.
No Chris, nothing special that I am aware of. But then again I have never mounted a brand new set of tires before. Do you see any directional arrows on the sidewalls? If not then dont worry about it.
Nope I dont see any arrows on my tires. So I can just mount them any which way, right? What about the whitewalls? Should I put them in or out?
Huh, do what? You actually bought whitewall tires?