| April 30th |
We went to the
SPCA
"Funny Bones" fundraising event. It was weird seeing people all dressed up. I even
shaved! |
|
|
| April 28th |
I dicked around in
World of Warcraft
for a while and got my
hunter
up to level 75. |
|
|
| April 27th |
I went and peered at the
van,
I took the oil filter out and found that there was some oil in it, but it wasn't full.
I used a plastic tube to push oil up the line to the filter, and into the filter itself,
then put it back on. I took out the spark plugs, unplugged the coil and used the starter
motor to turn the engine over, but I still don't have any oil pressure. It looks like
I'm going to have to take the distributor out and spin the pump that way, if I
can. |
|
|
| April 26th |
I called
Stephan's Autohaus
about the
van,
but Stephan's not about. Sara hasn't heard of a pump losing pressure, but she's deferring
to the boss.
I've been trying to find signed 64 bit drivers for the USB to serial adapter that I use
for the
weather station,
and so far I've struck out. Looks like I might have to buy a new adapter to get that
working again. I need CH340 drivers, if anybody has any handy :o) |
|
|
| April 25th |
I woke up ridiculously early, then couldn't get back to sleep, so I
got up and played
World of Warcraft
and got my
hunter
up to level 74 while I waited for daylight. Vic was back at the
SPCA,
so
Tilly
and I went back to bed, but sleep still wouldn't come. More Warcraft didn't help either,
so I've basically wasted the weekend :o( |
|
|
| April 24th |
Vic was attending the bunny birthday bash that she'd organised at the
SPCA,
so when she'd gone to do that, I played a bit of
World of Warcraft
then got started on my day. I went and looked at the
van,
but I still don't have any oil pressure - I'm starting to think that the pump has lost it's
prime, so it's pumping air, rather than oil. That would also explain why the filter was so
clean to take off - the oil's all drained down :o( I think I'll call
Stephan's Autohaus
on Monday.
I rode the
DRZ
over to the shelter to see how that was going, then went home to fire up the barbie again -
Vic had invited some of her friends over. The barbecue didn't want to light, as it was
still damp from me putting it out yesterday, so I ended up using a blowtorch to get the
charcoal lit. It actually worked pretty well, so I'll have to remember that one. |
|
|
| April 23rd |
After work, I put the plug in the sump, the new oil filter on and
filled the
van
with oil. Still no pressure, so it could well be that the switch has failed.
Vince came over, and we barbecued - the weather's nicer now, so that'll probably be
Fridays sorted out from now on. |
|
|
| April 22nd |
I went to Autozone and bought some Mobil 1 that they had on sale, then
went home and drained the oil out of the
van.
It has a nice design of oil filter with the engine lying on it's side, where the thing is
at the top of the engine, rather than the bottom, so you can take it off without dumping
oil all over yourself.
I left it draining, and went and watched the remake of
V,
which is starting to drag. We haven't even seen them eat a guinea pig yet, and who knows
what they're really here for. |
|
|
| April 21st |
I played a little
World of Warcraft
and managed to get my
hunter
up to level 73. |
|
|
| April 20th |
After work I threw the ball for
Tilly
until it started raining again. Then I went to look at the
van.
There's still a ticking that sounds like a valve to me, and the oil pressure light is
pretty much on all the time. I checked the plugs, and #1 is sooty, but unhooking the
plug lead causes the engine to slow down, so it's firing. I drove around the block, and
nothing went away, so I think I'll have to change the oil after all. |
|
|
| April 19th |
After work, we watched the 2 episodes of
Dr Who
that I'd got while I was in San Francisco. I wasn't sure that I was going to like the
new Doctor and assistant at first, but on reflection, they're not that bad. We'll see
if they grow on me :o) |
|
|
| April 18th |
I played a little
World of Warcraft
while I waited for the worst of the dew to dry, then hacked my way through the grass.
Looks like it's time to start cutting every week, which is a pain :o(
I looked briefly at the
van
- I'd thought that maybe the oil was contaminated, but it seems OK, and it's still there
which is a good sign. I didn't feel much like doing anything else on it at the moment.
Later returning to Warcraft, I managed to get my
hunter
up to level 72. |
|
|
| April 17th |
I wasted the day catching up on little tasks around the house and
taking the top off the HTPC so we could watch TV. I've ordered a new 9400 based graphics
card, so obviously the old one's behaving itself now. |
|
|
| April 16th |
A bunch of the guys from Europe spent the day getting themselves
sorted out to go skiing - they're not going anywhere until Monday at the earliest, so
they might as well make the best of it. I managed to slope out just before 4, and got
home just before 7, which isn't really at all bad when you take the traffic into account.
Tilly
remembered me, and immediately ran around the house for a while then got her ball for me
to throw.
We settled down to watch some of the shows the HTPC has recorded over the week, but it's
crawling - the fan on the graphics card sometimes doesn't start up, so the PC slows all the
way down to stop the system hurting itself. The usual sleeps and restarts didn't fix it,
so we gave up trying for the night. |
|
|
| April 15th |
I was on the phone with Dave, waiting for a teleconference to start
when he announced "I've just been rear ended". One would assume that he was in the car.
I said "Seriously?", and he said "Yes". I asked if he was OK, but he'd hung up, presumably
to drag the other driver out of her car and give her a stern talking to. I called him
after the teleconference, and he was fine - the Saab's not even that badly damaged. Still,
it's all fun, fun, fun.
Due to the
volcano ash from Iceland,
nobody's flying anywhere, so we were all in the office all day. After work we played
some poker, and when I'd lost my $20 stake, I did a little more work then headed back to
the hotel. |
|
|
| April 14th |
After the summit, we went back to the office for a meeting, then on
to the nearest Mexican restaurant for a team meal as some of the guys were heading out
on Thursday. |
|
|
| April 13th |
After the summit, we went to
AT&T park,
opposite the office, to watch the Giants lose to the Pirates. It wasn't a bad game, but
it was bloody cold. After the game Chris and I picked up our stuff from the office and
headed back to the hotel - neither of us is up to the constant partying that the others
seem to be able to keep up :o) |
|
|
| April 12th |
I got up at an obscene hour and drove to San Francisco for a tech
summit for work. It was nice to finally meet some of the guys from the UK team who I
haven't run into in the office before. |
|
|
| April 11th |
While Vic went and taught her critter class at the
SPCA
I tinkered with the
van.
I've discovered that when I was troubleshooting the not starting problem originally, I've
reconnected the fuel pump to a feed that cuts power when the starter is turning. Silly me,
it doesn't connect to the nice spade connector that's right next to the feed wire, it
connects directly to the fusebox. I've put a bullet connector on an extension to the fuse
box so that this never happens again. I got the van to stagger to a start, but it sounds
like crap and the oil pressure isn't coming up. I'm thinking that all the trying to start
it has let fuel drain down into the oil and contaminated it - it's been sitting for almost
2 months after all. I'm not sure what my original problem was though, as both ICUs I have
work fine. Must have been the coil. Yes, let's say it was the coil.
I tidied up and put everything back together, as I'm away next week and won't have the time
to look at it any further. |
|
|
| April 10th |
I spent the day on and off fiddling with the
van,
and eventually figured out that the power to the coil goes away when the starter fires
up. With Vic's help, I hotwired the ignition switch differently, and got a spark at the
engine - basically it would run if it would start. At least I know where to go
now. |
|
|
| April 9th |
I wasted some time in
World of Warcraft,
but I did get my
hunter
up to level 71. |
|
|
| April 8th |
Today was Vic's last day at the
SPCA.
She's going to concentrate on her
artwork
and see if that'll fly. She's still going to teach the critter class from time to time,
so she's not going totally cold turkey. |
|
|
| April 7th |
I went and met Vince for dinner, and Vic, Jen and Geri joined us
from the
SPCA
after work. Vince was celebrating selling his S-12 to a guy from Australia who lives
in Thailand. He's shipping it back to Australia for the moment. |
|
|
| April 5th |
I spoke to Stephan at
Stephan's Autohaus,
and he's lent us 2 ECUs, 2 ICUs and a distributor to test on the
van.
None of the plug in parts has solved anything, and I'm loathe to do the distributor as
I don't have a timing light to get it all set up correctly again. Who needs another
headache at this point? |
|
|
| April 4th |
We just pottered around the house all day, but I did get my
hunter
up to level 70. |
|
|
| April 3rd |
I wasted the morning tidying up in the garden and playing
World of Warcraft,
getting my
hunter
up to level 69. In the afternoon we went over to Freedom Field for a barbecue.
We took
Tilly,
and she was just fine until Bob the chihuahua went over to Vic, when Tilly decided
she must be protected. As Vic was going off to a
SPCA
meetup, she dropped Tilly at home. Other than that, a good time was had by
all. |
|
|
| April 2nd |
After work we went out with the multimeter and looked at the
van.
It still looks like the problem's the ICU, which is irritating. |