What did you do today not on your truck...

[Just call me Sean]

Soldering intricate electronics is fun. I've modified three DRACs like the one on the left. I need to do the VSSB on the right. I grabbed four more from the junkyard in case I screw up.

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by special-K

Was that old govt surplus?.

I doubt it, on federal land we are required by BLM (bureau of land management) to paint our units in similar colors to their surroundings. That one had likely come from an area heavy in juniper trees, thus the OD green paint. When it got reassigned to the location we just pulled it from it was in a building so no need to repaint.

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Stuff just doesn't last anymore. A mere 65 years and it quits

Yea no kidding, should have run another 30 years easy. I’m sure it’s been overhauled several times. I would rebuild it but we can’t get cams or cranks new for them anymore. We’ve had a couple reconditioned cranks fail in the past so we just gave up on them. There a much more efficient packages we can put it out now that still have good OEM service parts.

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

The 2.8 was a 60 degree for sure, I had one in an ‘87 S10 blazer about 15+ years ago. I’d assume the later 3.0, 3.1, 3.4 are as well. That 2.8 4x4 S10 blazer was quite possibly the most gutless thing gm has ever built. 0-60 in 45 minutes. The 4.3 was the best thing that GM ever did for the S10.

In 1985 I special ordered my wife a new S10 Blazer with the 2.8. It was loaded, including oversize tires.

I never test drove one, I just ordered it because I liked the way they looked. Big mistake. I grew to hate that thing. That thing was so gutless, even the old adage "drive it like you stole it" didn't work.

We have had several 4.3's in company trucks, and they perform well. We have never had a failure from one.

We've not had an engine run 65 years yet.

[3757chevy]

I took down Christmas lights.

[Just call me Sean]

I had an '86 S10 Blazer 4x4 with the carbureted 2.8. Lifted it 11" with 35s. It was super slow. Swapped in a 3.1 fuel injected from a Firebird, much better. I have an S10 pickup now with the 4.3. It's fun, like a go cart.

[dieseldawg142]

Originally Posted by davischevy

In 1985 I special ordered my wife a new S10 Blazer with the 2.8. It was loaded, including oversize tires.

I never test drove one, I just ordered it because I liked the way they looked. Big mistake. I grew to hate that thing. That thing was so gutless, even the old adage "drive it like you stole it" didn't work.

We have had several 4.3's in company trucks, and they perform well. We have never had a failure from one.

We've not had an engine run 65 years yet.

over 90% of the vehicles i've owned were GM, but the 2.8 made me hate and dis-like s-10's pretty much forever.
my wife also had a '85 blaze wit the 2.8 and bigger tires- what a headache mobile. hot running, manifold cracking, leaking feedback carb piece of sucktastic-ness.
after 6 mos of fighting with it, our last trip with it...


and the very next day washed up and sitting on our lawn with a for sale sign on it.....

[dieseldawg142]

wife has been bugging me for 6 mos about how her dresser drawer handle keeps popping off.
so i decided to bend it open a bit to stop it from pulling off.....didn't go to well...


didn't have any spare dresser handles kicking around, but i did have an extra 6" lawn spike....


will do until i can get some new handles. wife is happy it works, but complains it don't match...told her i could always break the other handles...

[special-K]

Looks good to me. Nice job.

My friend had a later Sonoma 4cyl/5spd 2wd he lent me for a week or so. He did some little things to spark it up and I loved driving it. I took it on a 400 mile drive one day, up and over mountains and all around. I fell in love with it. It was like driving a sports car to me. Switchbacks were awesome!

[67C10Step]

I took the weekend to clean up my shop a bit, over the past few months it has "collected" a bunch of my father in law's stuff so it needed sorting and placement.

Also got another pile of scrap metal together for my local scrapper to pick up this week. Yeah, more stuff out of my way.

Last, sorted and organized my ammo dump. At today's prices and availability I might have more in that than my 401K.

[57taskforce]

I took my kids and delivered some extra fire wood to some people who are in need on Friday, was a good lesson for my little ones to learn on helping others. They weren’t to enthused at first but a trip to the gas station for some snacks persuaded them rather well

[72 tigger]

^ That’s a good idea, instilling a giving and work ethic

[Steeveedee]

Making a larger transportation chest for my carving tools. The one I have ran out of room. The new one will be ~50% larger. It'll hold about 12 more knives and 40 more chisels, as I made sure to provide expansion space. Funny thing, that's what I thought when I built the last one. I think that this will be the limit, though. I cut out the drawer slides and sanded them into submission today. Friday was spent cutting out the carcass and drawer parts. Saturday was feet up after CostCo because I overdid the standing and walking around on Friday. Feet were

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

^ That’s a good idea, instilling a giving and work ethic

My hope is one day they will be at least semi conscious of others around them and willing to help when the right situations arise. My parents worked to teach me similarly. I hope it will carry over. The are only 4 and 6 right now so hopefully a consistent early start will help reinforce it. I get them to help me bring wood into the house and other outdoor work as much as possible too, they seem to enjoy that more than cleaning inside the house

[DeadheadNM]

I relearned how to ice skate after a 40 year absence from the ice. That’s my 4yo daughter and she said “come on dad I’ll teach you how to skate” and took my hand.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

My hope is one day they will be at least semi conscious of others around them and willing to help when the right situations arise. My parents worked to teach me similarly. I hope it will carry over. The are only 4 and 6 right now so hopefully a consistent early start will help reinforce it. I get them to help me bring wood into the house and other outdoor work as much as possible too, they seem to enjoy that more than cleaning inside the house

Planting seeds.

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

I relearned how to ice skate after a 40 year absence from the ice. That’s my 4yo daughter and she said “come on dad I’ll teach you how to skate” and took my hand.

That would be me on skates. When I was young we skated ponds and lakes all over. The day came the we no longer get ice we can trust, or is very rare. I never cared to skate in a rink

[72c20customcamper]

Made a new hanger for the suet the seed feeders are all squirrel proof and work well but the suet was being wiped out almost everyday . Just stuff I had around the house. Got some green paint for itthats all I needed to buy

Afterwards I went for my pain session . Go three times a week ,pt for my hand

[WunTon]

Took down the ground level exterior Xmas decorations and lights. I'll wait till it's warmer to get the lift and get the rest taken down. I put up about 15k light bulbs this year so I've still got a long ways to go before I'm finished!!

[57taskforce]

WunTon, Purcellville huh??. I graduated from Valley back when all of western Loudoun still went to Valley. Small world. my dad still lives west of Hillsboro on route 9 and my mom just over the state line in WV.

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

WunTon, Purcellville huh??. I graduated from Valley back when all of western Loudoun still went to Valley. Small world. my dad still lives west of Hillsboro on route 9 and my mom just over the state line in WV.

Small world! We just moved out here two years ago after living in Centreville for 10 years.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by WunTon

Took down the ground level exterior Xmas decorations and lights. I'll wait till it's warmer to get the lift and get the rest taken down. I put up about 15k light bulbs this year so I've still got a long ways to go before I'm finished!!

I just unplugged mine yesterday. Took some down. I like to leave them lit till about a week after New Years. My youngest's birthday is Jan 2nd, plus I just hate to see them go. I usually get the high lights when winter breaks. Sometimes when it snows I'll plug them in

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by WunTon

Small world! We just moved out here two years ago after living in Centreville for 10 years.

For the most part I’ve been gone from there since 2008, there was a 3ish year stint when I was there again 2010-2013 or so. I’ve been here in New Mexico the remainder of the time. It will always be home, I try and get back at least once a year. I’m the only one in my family who has left the area for good so far. The Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley will always hold a special place inside me. It’s grown so much over the last 25 years that I recognize less and less when I go back. I can remember 7 being one lane in each direction from Round Hill to Leesburg believe it or not. When I was a kid my dad and I used to hunt all the land around Round Hill which is all subdivisions now. Crazy how things change.
If you spent a lot of time in Centreville I’m sure you understand, it used to be about as country as Purcellville did.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

I took my kids and delivered some extra fire wood to some people who are in need on Friday, was a good lesson for my little ones to learn on helping others. They weren’t to enthused at first but a trip to the gas station for some snacks persuaded them rather well

I bought a cord of wood and the guys were unloading it and my 9 y/o grandson went out to help. No one asked him to. He just did it and boy could that kid carry/stack wood. The guys delivering the wood were impressed. I was proud of him.

[72c20customcamper]

Went to Home Depot for shelving and some pots for plants . Ended up buying a Toro front wheel drive mower . Had too originally 359 75% off with an additional 25% off . Ended up paying $67.31 . I looked it over never was gassed up and oil not in it yet . Checked the underside and it’s never been used

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

Went to Home Depot for shelving and some pots for plants . Ended up buying a Toro front wheel drive mower . Had too originally 359 75% off with an additional 25% off . Ended up paying $67.31 . I looked it over never was gassed up and oil not in it yet . Checked the underside and it’s never been used

Good deal! You going to use it as a snow blower until spring?

[1976gmc20]

The guy who used to own the place behind us and lived out of state brought up a self-propelled mower for me to do his yard while he was gone most of the time.

That thing was worthless because it wanted to go too fast so that you had to mow every three days or it wouldn't cut. When you disengaged the drive then you could hardly push it and it was hell to pull backwards when you had a dead end to mow. When I got my riding mower I told him that he was paying for me to use that or else I wasn't doing it.

I hope you have better luck