Working on To-Dos while Home

We're keeping somewhat busy getting stuff fixed, arranged, projects started on or worked on.

Uma, the VRRV is in the shop for brake rotors/pads all around, a new serpentine belt and tensioner for the engine, new shock absorbers all around and replacement anti-sway bars in the rear.  There's some more stuff but those are the major ones.  Apparently, the rear brake pads were "metal to metal".  I really need to learn to check brake pad wear on dually wheels.  I hope to get her back next Friday.  Yes, it's going to be expensive but works out to about $800/year since 2016 when we bought her.  Also, working brakes are kind of key....

Martha and I spent a few days pulling at weeds in the backyard.  Made good progress and we'll see how things go in terms of preventing the weeds returning.

We'll be having the two big Cottonwood trees trimmed so that they pass more air through their branches.  This expense won't happen till just past mid-July as the work can't be done before then due to prior commitments on the part of the tree trimmer compay.

This to hopefully prevent the sometimes very strong wings from causing major damage.  Our worry had been that the trees would be toppled over in a wind storm, but the tree guy said they look strong and healthy.  

I laid out a circle of bricks around the patch of grass that has never grown in well, we're thinking of setting up a portable gazebo within the circle to cover up the patch.

                               

Digital Mockup of Gazebo Idea

We also outfitted the second set of wheels for the Honda CR-V with new all season tires and had them installed on the CR-V.  The wheels with the snow tires went into storage under the deck for eventual use this coming October.  Yep, more money.  

We'd been paying to have summer and winter tires swapped out on same set of wheels but now have the option of me changing them out as required.

Bought and installed replacement trailer tongue jack for the Aluma trailer.  It is definitely easier to maneuver the trailer with it on than without it!  I'm pretty sure this last camping trip was this trailer's last outing for such purposes.

Now that I have Scarlett operational again, I'm thinking of selling both her and Brigitta, my '87 R80 BMW Airhead.  In the case of Brigitta, I'm just not riding her enough to keep her healthy.  Yesterday, was the first time I'd ridden her in over six months!  As to Scarlett, I'm pretty sure she's taken her last camping trip and will also suffer Brigitta's fate in that she won't get ridden enough either.

One of the reasons selling has been entertained, is to raise money to buy a small/reliable spare car.  Allowing us the option of taking it vs the Honda CR-V on camping trips where Martha comes along.  We'll see how this notion plays out.

During recent torrential rains, Martha had reported possible issues with the Sump Pump's activation switch.  Luckily, she and Patrick had monitored the water level and had run the pump manually as needed.  It turned out to be that the pump's float had come loose from wherever it'd been mounted.  So it would just float horizontally with the rising water instead of its buoyancy eventually forcing one end up and closing the circuit to run the pump automatically!  Easy fix.

Scarlett has a New Clutch and Swing Arm

During most of the past two days or so:

Well, it took way, way, way longer than I expected but Scarlett now has a new clutch pack and is once again drivable.

I'd received some time ago, a replacement swing arm from IMWA (Ural).  It had been sent to me after I reported that mine had broken apart while in Utah.  Link.

I'd taken such a long time to replace the swing arm since the welded version did work, though it was slightly misaligned.  It necessitated more work to change out the pusher wheel for instance, to allow for the misalignment but it was something I got used to.

Now, since I had to push the swing arm to the rear to remove Scarlett's gearbox to access the clutch, I thought I might as well change out the swing arm.  No, I didn't want to remove the engine from the frame to work on it.  Looking back, it probably would have been easier but since I had the replacement swing arm....

Things were taken apart without any major issues.  The swing arm took a bit of creative maneuvering but nothing too complicated.

I was presented with lots of clutch material in the form of black dust all over the clutch components and flywheel:

The flywheel, where the clutch disks reside,

prior to cleanup.

The clutch pad disk closest to engine.

Of the two clutch pad disks that comprise the Ural's clutch pack; the front one was basically destroyed.  As you can see above, it had broken apart.  I could lift the thin sheet of remaining material off the disk backing, easily.  The second disk, closer to gearbox, seemed in OK shape.  I'll be keeping that one but not the other metal plates/rings as they were heat damaged at the very least.

Here's the flywheel after I cleaned it up:

Took me a few tries at least to get the new clutch components lined up and screwed down.  Before I could even start, one trip to the hardware store was required to get two 60mm long M8 x 1.25 bolts and nuts to uncompress the old components and compress the new ones into place.  The ones I'd used before over the years?  Burnt up/lost during the fire that caused me the loss of Fiona, my BMW engine Ural.

After the second attempt, I had to take it all apart because I had placed the cover plate backwards!  Doh.

An old transmission input spline gear is used to line up the two new clutch plates center hub gears:

Next two pics show the clutch pack in place, and you can see the center hub gear teeth are aligned.  Note the square hole onto which the clutch actuating rod is inserted.

I used red Loctite on the six screws

The next day, I started work on re-assembling all the components.  Took me quite a bit of time and some calls to RichardM and Darrel S. to talk over ways to fit the clutch actuating rod through the rear of the mated to engine gear box, and onto the little square hole shown above.

There's at least three methods now known to me, but it was RichardM's method that ended up working for me after many attempts with forceps.  I didn't even try the small rubber tube method!  

It took me many attempts because the square hole in the new pressure plate was tight.  In frustration, I took the gearbox off the engine again and checked to make sure the rod would even go in!  In fact, the first attempt to do so directly failed!  The square was very tight.  I got the rod in and out several times until it was easier to slide the square end of the clutch actuating rod into the pressure plate!

Note: you can tell when you've successfully inserted the rod, the thrust washer assembly goes into the gearbox deeper than when the rod isn't in the right spot on the pressure plate in the clutch!  Trust me, I thought I had it in the right spot, twice, and after fiddling with clutch cable found it too tight both times.

I hung the gearbox on the two mounting screws coming out of the engine case, leaving enough of a gap to be able to see the rod as I once again tried to push it in through the gearbox.  Success!  

Following RichardM's advice, I used a thin flat tip screwdriver to hold/put tension on the rod visible between the clutch pack and the input spline on the gearbox to prevent it from moving backwards when I withdrew the small nut drive on a magnetic extension that I used per RichardM's suggestion.

Next major issue was installing the new swingarm.  Took me a bit of time to figure out the way to twist the sucker onto the frame.  Lost a lot of time trying to thread it through the wrong part of the frame mind you!  Sigh.

I had to enlist my next door neighbor's assistance to remount the two shock absorbers onto the new swing arm as one has to fight the shock's compressing springs, so that took a bit of time as well.

That joyful task done with, the rest of the components went on without too many tears and cursing on my part.

The new major issue was the rear wheel's brake calipers.  Though I wasn't replacing the pads, I couldn't put them back onto the caliper when mounting it to the rear disc!  The brake piston you see, I couldn't compress it to allow room for the old brake pads!

At least two joyful hours and extreme exhaustion on my part, I gave up and just hung the caliper out of the way for another day.

Finally got most everything installed and after some adjustment of the clutch cable to prevent Scarlett from creeping forward with clutch engaged, I went for a short test drive.

I'm happy to report the new clutch works fine!

Today, I rested and did other chores about the house.  In the late afternoon, I used a brake pad separator tool and damn if the piston didn't start moving inwards finally!  Of course, in my efforts previously, all brake fluid had been leaked out so I must get more DOT4 fluid to fill then bleed the brake caliper.  Perhaps Wednesday after I get the new speed bleeders for Scarlett's brake calipers to make thigs easier.

Yep, I'd installed speed bleeders before according to my maintenance spreadsheet but the one on the stubborn bake caliper sure seemed to be sucking air back in!

Such are the vicissitudes of a Uralista's life, that and I really shouldn't be allowed near tools some days.

Still, the job is done, soon Scarlett will be close to 100% and we can move on to other things.

Update: June 27 - Got the piston to retract using a different tool, remounted the caliper and oriented it so the bleed valve was pointing up and tried to bleed the air out of the system.  Over an hour of pumping later, realized something wasn't right.  A quick call to RichardM provided the answer, when one is refilling a caliper, the caliper itself must be the highest point from the brake cylinder!  Doh.

So I raised the pusher wheel above the cylinder, a few more pumps and no more bubbles!  Sigh and Yay.  Got Scarlett buttoned up, went for a successful test drive and cleaned her up.  Must rest.

Home for the first time this year.

Martha and I drove from west of Craig, CO to our home in Centennial today, stopping only for one chore (buying a replacement swing away trailer jack for the trailer), dumping tanks and getting fuel for Uma.

We left the campsite at 7:08 AM and were at our cul-de-sac by 1:23 PM.  The drive on US40 is much more restful than the sometimes frantic traffic on I-70, especially as one crosses into the Front Range of Colorado.

Here's some pics taken by Martha:

I believe we were approaching Berthoud Pass, the 

final "big pass" before reaching Idaho Springs eventually.

Apparently, Thing One missed me.

Got all the vehicles returned home safely, pilot

and navigator still speaking to each other

Some trip stats:

Uma drove a bit over 5089 miles since the beginning of the year.  We covered nine US states, I flew into one other to visit my folks and a month in Mexico's Baja California, resulted in me being 179 days away from home total.  This is the longest stretch so far in terms of camping!

I'm going to be home for a bit, Scarlett needs a new clutch, Uma needs to have some items looked at and there's a bunch of stuff to be done at the house too.

I also have to finalize the gear to safely flat tow Martha's Honda CR-V for the next camping trip where she comes along.

We both found Northwestern Colorado to be nice and somewhat uncrowded, especially when compared to the Front Range's mess.  More exploring of that portion of the state may be warranted.

Thanks for following along!

Back in Colorado, almost Home

 We left the campsite a little after 7am, I guess we were both ready to get going eh?

Tried to dump tanks at the USFS Lucerne Campground but you can only use tokens and those weren't available till 9am!

Went into Manila and got gas and washed the underside of the VRRV and trailer using a pressure washer at the car wash.

Then we took Utah Highway 44 down towards Vernal, UT.  This section of highway is replete with steep hills, twisty roads and heavily forested on both sides.  Uma, the VRRV struggled to maintain 30 mph at some of the steeper bit, and that's with the accelerator all the way to the floor.  I don't think we'll be visiting this area again anytime soon.

Stopped at the Harbor Freight in Vernal, UT but they didn't have the swing-away 1000lb trailer jack I wanted.  The old one was bent and twisted you see, from being used as a tow point when the trailer was being pulled from the recent mudfest.

We changed the planned route as our destination turned out to be a pay site now run by the BLM in Rabbit Valley, CO.  We stuck to US40 and headed towards the Harbor Freight in Craig, CO.  There was a State Park Campground beyond Craig and we'd figured on staying there.

About 30 minutes east of Craig, Martha located a good boondocking spot through the iOverlander app so we decided to check it out.

Pretty good site, not very large so no temptation by other campers to "share" the site with you.  We had decent LTE signal so we decided to stop for the day and set up camp.

It's a lovely, secluded due to location spot.  I like it.  Next to a county road but very little traffic.

This spot is on the way to the Juniper Hot Springs on the Yampa River about four miles from the campsite.

I rode to the Hot Springs to check them out at Martha's behest while she relaxed in the VRRV.

The Hot Springs were easy to find, though not well marked with signage.  I didn't go into the water, the venue had a "sketchy" feel to it.  Not to mention, the guy who I assumed was the "host" didn't dispel any of the sketchy atmosphere if you know what I mean.

Yampa River view from CR 77

Juniper Hot Springs, by the fifth wheel RV

I left and briefly explored portions of CR 74 and CR77 nearby, along with CR53 which leads one back to US Highway 40 to the north.  I checked out the nearby trails close to camp but there were just OHV trails with no nice views due to foliage.

So, though we went through several "issues" early on in this drive: (malfunctioning gas pumps, no jack in stock, dump stations closed (two different ones); we ended up today's driving with a WIN thanks to Martha's navigation and careful checking of the iOverland map!

We'll be home tomorrow.